When Archive CD Books Canada were first offered this "old song book" they were uncertain if it would be suitable for their publications. They say "we finally decided to ask Mary Yeatman Robinson, the book's current custodian, to loan it to us because we could not find any trace of it on any of our normal references for old and rare books. When it arrived and we'd had time to look at it a little harder it became clear that; first it was two separate song books bound together in one home made cover, and that there was no trace of either of them in any of our normal reference sources. (There are plenty of song books using the same names but none with these collections.) That, together with their rather advanced state of dilapidation, decided us that what was needed was a rescue mission, not just the normal copy to make it more available'.
'Only one of the two books still has a title page left and showed it had been published in New York in 1873. We think that the other book came from the same publishing house and is about the same age. Both books are full of anglicized versions of traditional Irish ballads, although the Faugh-a-Ballagh also includes 'side splitting stories and anecdotes'.
Between them these two books contain over 100 ballads and stories, even allowing for the two or three that were already missing.
'We have made the titles searchable (but not the text.) If you are proud of your Irish heritage, or just enjoy traditional Irish songs, this is a collection which came close to disappearing forever'.
High quality scanned images of the whole of the original book. This CD has been bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.
