On Skype, last evening, Dad sang The Rose of Tralee from beginning to end, without any music and without the lyrics.  Every word…every note.

I haven’t credited the writer of this song because there’s a little bit of a story about that…

“The words of the song are credited to Edward Mordaunt Spencer and the music to Charles William Glover, but a story circulated in connection with the festival claims that the song was written by William Pembroke Mulchinock, a wealthy Protestant, out of love for Mary O’Connor, a poor Catholic maid in service to his parents.”

The Rose of Tralee…