The Daniel O’Connell Heritage Trail

This first tune titled Daniel O’Connell comes from the Roche Collection. The tune has an interesting history. Its’ origin remains a mystery and in other collection’s has been titled Larry O’Gaff, Making babies by steam and O’Connell’s steam engine. It is the nature of the aural tradition that through the passing on of the music by ear, and the variations that inevitably occur along the chain of musicians that it passes, the fundamental essence of the composition remains the same even though the original name of the piece has long since been forgotten. The titles Making babies by steam and O’Connell’s steam engine derive from a ballad that was composed following a speech in which Daniel O'Connell referred to the railways. He is quoted as saying ‘the steam engine would be the making of the Irish nation.’ Suspicion and a lack of understanding of the nature of steam power among the country folk is exploited by the tinker in the ballad in convincing a naïve old country woman that O’Connell had banned the traditional way of producing offspring in favour of steam-power. Steam power was a popular subject amongst the ballad makers. An 1875 Broadside ballad mentions a song hatching chickens by steam.

The tune was recorded by John J. Kimmel and can be heard on ‘Early Recordings of Irish Traditional Dance Music by John J. Kimmel 1920.