Annotation:Lady Iveagh
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LADY IVEAGH ("Bantighearna Ibheach" or "Bantiarna Ibheachadh"). Irish, Air (2/4 time). G Minor (Bunting): A Minor (Heymann). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Heymann): AABB (Bunting). The Irish collector Edward Bunting (1773-1843) obtained this song air from harper Arthur O'Neill in 1792. Researcher Donal O'Sullivan (1983), in his extensive notes to the tune, records that the composition of the melody has been attributed to biography:Thomas Connallon (or Connellan), born at Cloonmahon, County Sligo, in 1640, or his brother William, the younger by five years. O'Neill (1913) credits it to Thomas's younger brother, whose name he gives as Laurence O'Connellan. Bunting's comment on the tune was thus:
An air remarkable for its haughty and majestic style, suitable most probably to the rank and character of the lady to whom it is addressed. The Lady Iveagh whose name is preserved in this characteristic melody was Sarah, daughter of Hugh O'Neill, the great Earl of Tyrone. She was married to Art Roe Magennis [Aodh Ruadh Mag Aonghuis], who was created Viscount Iveagh by patent of July 18th, 1623.
The title (as "Lady Veaugh") was recorded by the Belfast Northern Star of July 15th, 1792, as having been played by one of ten Irish harp masters at the last great convocation of ancient Irish harpers, the Belfast Harp Festival, held that week.
Iveagh is a barony in County Down, most of whose land was granted in by Queen Elizabeth in 1584 to the Magennis family, who had been lords of the area for centuries--the name now is commonly called Guinness. O'Sullivan's researches find that Bunting must be in error, for the dates of the Connellans and Sarah O'Neill do not match, and that either the melody is the composition of an earlier bard or that Sarah is not the Lady Iveagh to whom the composition was dedicated. If either of the Connellans was the composer they likely referred to the last Lady Iveagh, he finds, whose name was Margaret, daughter of the seventh Earl of Clanricarde, and a woman of great personal charm who married into the Iveagh house in the late 17th century. Margaret's husband (the fifth Viscount) died in 1692 in service of the Emperor of Austria, but she returned home to marry again in 1696 to Colonel Thomas Butler of Kilcash (Co. Tipperary), dying a widow in 1744. The Connellans were in their 40's during the brief period Margaret was Lady Iveagh (who was probably still known by her former title after her second marriage by the local Tipperary population). Heymann (1990) adds that she was apparently well-loved, being mentioned by name and alluded to in the famous "Caoine Chille Cais" (Lament for Kilcash), as well as being the object of a praise poem by a priest named Lane. O'Sullivan also reports there is a MS variant of "Lady Iveagh" called "Miss Crofton" which is often attributed to O'Carolan on the strength of stylistic criteria.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Bunting (Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840; p. 2. Heymann (Off the Record), 1990; pp. 19-22. O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 2, p. 2.
Recorded sources: Temple Records 013, Ann Heymann & Alison Kinnaird - "Harper's Land" (1983).