Annotation:Sir Barry Denny's March
X:1 T:Sir Barry Denny's March M:C L:1/8 R:March S:James Goodman (1828─1896) music manuscript collection, S:vol. 3, p. 111. Mid-19th century, County Cork F:http://goodman.itma.ie/volume-three#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=114&z=-2815.4555%2C0%2C13806.911%2C6432 F:at Trinity College Dublin / Irish Traditional Music Archive goodman.itma.ie Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G GA|B2 BB B2 GB|d2 dd d2 ef|gfed BdBG|A2 AA A2 GA| B2 BB B2 GB|d2 dd d3c|Bedc B2A2|G2 GG G2:| |:(Bc)|d2 dd (dB)(dB)|G2 GG G2 ef|gfed BdGB|A2 AA A2 GA| B2 BB B2 (GB)|d2 dd d3c|Bedc B2A2|G2 GG G2:|]
SIR BARRY DENNY'S MARCH. AKA and see "American March," "Green Horse March (The)," "Inverary March," "O'Brien of Arra." Irish, March (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. There were two Sir Barry Denny's in Tralee, Ireland, father and son, both Baronets and Anglo-Irish politicians representing County Kerry in Parliament. The elder Sir Barry died in 1794, leaving the title to his newly-married son and namesake, who was also High Sheriff of Kerry that year. Sir Barry, Jr., did not live long to enjoy either a new family or position, as it happened, for in a by-election for a Parliamentary seat in October, 1794, Denny promised to remain neutral and not come between the Crosbie, Blennerhassett and Herbert families who were contesting the seat. One of the candidates, John Gustavus Crosbie (1749-1797), "took offense at some real or supposed breach of a promised neutrality on the part of the sitting member Sir Barry Denny: a duel was the consequence: the parties met in the demesne of Oakpark, and Sir Barry Denny was killed, being shot through the head at the first fire, and, as was said, by the haphazard aim of a man who had never before discharged a pistol in his life..." ["Parliamentary Representation of Kerry", The Kerry Magazine, No. 35, vol. 3, 1856]. Crosbie died three years later from a fall from his horse while riding home at night, "a calamity which the enlightened populace did not fail to lay to the charge of Sir Barry Denny's ghost..."
The tune appears twice (once untitled) in the third copybook of the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon biography:James Goodman. It was also included in the c. 1909 music manuscript collection possessed by curate and fiddler biography:Rev. Luke Donnellan (Oriel region, south Ulster) under the title "Green Horse March (The)." Boston music publisher Elias Howe published the march as "American March," while Glasgow publisher James S. Kerr issued it as "Inverary March."
The march has similarities to "Balance the Straw (1)" but not enough to establish a cognate relationship to "Sir Barry Denny's March."
