Eugene Dunphy explores the history of a much-loved ballad.

 The Dawning of the Day

Eugene Dunphy explores the history of a much-loved ballad.

In February 1936 Thomas J. Kiernan, Irish Director of Broadcasting, announced his intention to have a new identification signal for Radio Athlone. Listeners were asked to suggest an appropriate tune, with the understanding that the most voted for tune would be chosen. Twenty melodies were initially selected, each of which was broadcast throughout February, and the results were announced in March. Out of a total of 967 letters received, ‘My Lagan Love’, ‘The Blackbird’, ‘Óró ’Sé do bheatha ’bhaile’, and ‘Leather Away at the Wattle’ received the least votes, but by far the most popular, with 260 votes, was Michael Joseph McCann’s ‘O’Donnell Abú’, which was first aired as a ‘station ID’ on Sunday, 20th of December 1936. The runner-up, with 151 votes, was the melody that accompanied that other well-known ballad, ‘The Dawning of the Day’.

Originally called ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’, and later ‘The Golden Star’, ‘The Dawning of the Day’ melody was composed by County Sligo harper Thomas Connellan, who died in 1698. A set of Irish-language lyrics were subsequently added to Connellan’s composition, the lyricist’s name unknown, and the Irish and English words of the ballad were included in Edward Walsh’s 1847 work, Irish Popular Songs. Another similar version (replete with Connellan’s melody) appeared in Patrick Weston Joyce’s Ancient Irish Music (published 1873):

Maidin mhoch do ghabhas amach,

Air bhruach Locha Léin;

An Samhradh ag teacht ’san chraobh re n’ais,

’Gus lonnradh teith ó’n ngréin;

Air taisdiol dham tre bhailte-puirt

’Gus bánta míne réidh,

Cia gheabhainn le’m ais acht chúilfhionn deas,

Le fáinne geal an lae ...

About a young couple courting by the banks of Lough Leane in Killarney, Joyce translated all three Irish verses into English, adding that his translation followed ‘the original almost word for word’. The ‘Joyce ballad’, both the English and Irish versions, came to prominence in the mid to late 1890s, when it was often selected as a test piece for singers who entered the Feis in Dublin. We know that by December 1896, John J. Murphy, a sean-nós singer from Cúl na Gréine in Cork, was teaching ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’ to Irish language students attached to the Lee Branch of the Gaelic League, the students gathering for classes in the Pope’s Quay area of Cork city.

Though the Joyce translation was particularly popular in Munster and Leinster, it soon made its way north, coming to the attention of Belfast nationalist and antiquarian, Francis Joseph Bigger. In 1909 Bigger, who cherished the language and customs of Rathlin Island, off the County Antrim coast, played a key role in starting a ferry between Rathlin and Portrush, and in July of that year he christened the newly-built thirty-five-foot vessel ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’, the name emblazoned on the side and bracketed with ‘The Dawning of the Day’.

On the 22nd of December 1928, the Meath Chronicle published another English language version of ‘The Dawning of the Day’, by a writer who used the pseudonym ‘Slieve na Cuileagh’: ‘It was on a summer’s morn as gleamed the gentle dawn, I met a maid of beauty, rare and graceful as the fawn’. Looking closely at the words, it seems that ‘Slieve na Cuileagh’ loosely based his verses on the sentiments expressed in the original ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’. On the 29th of August 1934 John McCormack, accompanied by pianist Edwin Schneider, went into a studio and recorded ‘The Dawning of the Day’, as published by Joyce and arranged for piano by Nathaniel Clifford Page. Subsequently released on the HMV label, McCormack performed the ballad on the 6th of October 1935, at the Savoy Theatre, Dublin, the Irish Examiner reporting that his rendition brought ‘sheer delight’ to the packed house. The ballad also featured in the 1937 film ‘Wings of the Morning’, McCormack performing it in the presence of a youthful Henry Fonda.

P. W. Joyce and John McCormack

A militaristic, marching version of the melody was often played by the band attached to the 40th Irish Infantry Battalion who, on the morning of the 19th of April 1964, mustered at Dublin airport, each ready to embark on a United Nations peace-keeping mission to Cyprus. After a long flight on two American Hercules C130s, they arrived in Nicosia, where they lined up for inspection, and as orders in Irish echoed along the runway, the band played a rousing rendition of ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’.

Patrick Kavanagh, that sterling poet from Inniskeen in Monaghan, wedded the melody to his beautiful love-poem ‘Raglan Road’, and to great effect. Tyrone-born journalist Benedict (‘Ben’) Kiely, who once worked for The Standard newspaper, recalled the day when Kavanagh arrived at The Standard’s offices in Dublin. After exchanging pleasantries with editor Peadar O’Curry and staff member Kevin B. Nowlan, Kiely noticed that Kavanagh was lovingly clutching a piece of foolscap paper. ‘Ben’, he asked, ‘could we sing this to the air of The Dawning of the Day?’. Leaning over the poet’s shoulder, O’Curry, Nowlan and Kiely began to sing those now immortal words, soon to be popularised by Luke Kelly: ‘On Raglan Road on an autumn day, I saw her first and knew; that her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue’. Below, The Dawning of the Day, as recorded in 1934, by John McCormack:

One morning early I walked forth

By the margin of Lough Leane;

The sunshine dressed the trees in green,

And summer bloomed again.

I left the town and wandered on

Through fields all green and gay,

And whom should I meet but my cailín-deas

By the dawning of the day.

No cap or cloak did this maiden wear,

Her neck and feet were bare;

Down to the grass in ringlets fell

Her glossy golden hair.

A milking pail was in her hand,

She was lovely, young and gay;

She bore the palm from Venus bright,

By the dawning of the day.

On a mossy bank I sat me down,

With this maiden by my side;

With gentle words I courted her,

And asked her to be me bride.

She said, ‘Young man, don’t bring me blame,

But let me go away,

For the morning’s light is shining bright

By the dawning of the day’.

Watch Eugene’s video on this ballad here:

Sligo