Dublin and the Irish Melodies

While History's muse

1811. A Selection of Irish Melodies (William Power). Music score.

Love's young dream ("Oh the days are gone")

1821. Irish Melodies: and a melologue upon National Music (William Power).

The Meeting of the Waters

1825. Irish Melodies, and other poems (William Power & W. Curry, Jun.)

As slow our ship

1833. Irish Melodies and miscellaneous poem (John Cumming)

The Meeting of the Waters

1842. [Irish Melodies in Irish] (John Cumming and A.Milliken)

Oh breathe not his name

 1850. Irish Melodies (James Duffy)

As slow our ship

1852. [Irish Melodies in Irish] (John Cumming and A. Milliken)

St Senanus and the Lady ("Oh! haste and leave this sacred isle")

1859. Irish Melodies (James Duffy)

While History's Muse

1868. Irish Melodies (James Duffy)

As vanquish'd Erin

Next to London, Dublin was the most prolific centre for the publication of the lyrics to Moore's Irish Melodies. William Power (fl. 1800-1830), who had previously enjoyed joint copyright with his brother James over the music to the Irish Melodies, first published the lyrics as a collection in 1821. William Power, when publishing the lyrics on his own, included Moore's  Melologue upon National Music as a highlighted feature.

The first item in this gallery (top left) is  from the original music series, as jointly published by William and James Power. It  pre-dates the first publication of the collected lyrics by a decade. The plates shown here are from the 'Dublin edition', and so represent the work of William Power and his associates.

The next key figure was John Cumming (fl. 1810-1847), who first published Moore's lyrics in 1833. Along with A. Milliken, Cumming is notable for publishing an Irish-language translation of the Irish Melodies, by John MacHale Archbishop of Tuam, in 1842 and 1852.

Particularly active was James Duffy (1809-1871), who as a publisher specialized in Irish topics. Duffy's first known publication of Moore's lyrics dates from 1850. Once the original copyright has expired in 1859, Duffy also published editions of the music. 'Duffy & Sons' continued to publish Moore until the end of the nineteenth century.

 Further examples of Moore's lyrics as published by William Power, John Cumming, or James Duffy are available in the associated OMEKA collection, Moore's Irish Melodies: Texts and Illustrations. These may be sought by year, place of publication, or surname of publisher. The OMEKA collection lacks only three of the known Dublin-based editions of Moore's lyrics: Irish Melodies, and other poems (John Cumming, 1833); Irish Melodies and other poems (Cumming and Ferguson, 1846); also Irish Melodies and National Airs (James Duffy & Sons, 1879).

The final example to the left  is Duffy's 1871 publication of the Irish language edition as translated by John MacHale, originally issued by Cumming and Milliken.

Dublin and the Irish Melodies