Annotation:Billy Byrne's Lament

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BILLY BYRNE'S LAMENT. Irish, Lament. Probably the same tune as "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus." The sometimes unrealiable Grattan Flood (A History of Irish Music, chapter XXII) stated that the tune to which the Billy Byrne words are set was borrowed from a Jacobite era song "Ormonde's Lament," about the fall of the powerful Irish 2nd Duke of Ormonde. However, the "Ormonde's Lament" airs printed by Joyce and Petrie are quite different than the "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus" melody.

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