Teddy O’Neale

A lament for an emigrated sweetheart, sung by the Norah he left behind, with words by the English poet Eliza Cook (1818–1889); a musical setting by the American composer James Gaspard Maeder was published in 1843, though whether his tune is the one that carried the song isn’t certain. The song circulated hugely in nineteenth-century songsters and broadsides on both sides of the Atlantic (Roud 5207) and, unusually for the parlor tier, was later collected from traditional singers, remaining in Irish singing sessions today.