Norah the Pride of Kildare

A sentimental song with words and music by the Welsh harper-composer John Parry (1776–1851), also author of “Sweet Jenny Jones,” popular enough through the nineteenth century that anthologies frequently misfiled it as an anonymous Irish ballad. Samuel Bayard traced the melody back past Parry to an untitled “Giga” in Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion (c. 1760), suggesting adaptation rather than fresh composition, and the air also circulates in Pennsylvania tradition as “Stony Point.” John McCormack recorded the song in 1904.