I’ve just been to my wife’s uncle Johnny’s funeral.
I was asked to play a piece of music on the flute after the eulogy was given. My wife’s cousin gave her a double cd of James Galway music for me to pick something from. The music on the cd’s ranged from the Pachelbel ‘Canon in D minor’ to ‘Greensleeves’ and from ‘The flight of the bumblebee’ to ‘You raise me up’ and everything else in between. I noticed ‘Danny Boy’ was on there also. Johnny loved to sing, and would join in with gusto when we had a sing along after our sessions. Like myself, he also got the ‘cringe’ when asked to sing Danny boy, and without exception, refused to sing it. I have grown averse to playing it or singing it mainly because in the past when I sung it people (who usually had never stepped foot in Ireland but came from irish stock) would join in and turn it into a raucous drinking song.
As passe as the tune has become, I decided to play it at the funeral.
So there I was, standing about 6 feet away from the casket, and ready to play.
I was just about ready to throw up.
I gave a brief explanation about why I chose the tune then went for it on my flute.
I don’t know how I got through it, I played Danny Boy like I have never played it before. There were people bursting out crying and I tried hard to block them out and stop myself from breaking down.
So I did it, I got through it, and it was not the old worn out and cliched Danny Boy but a revitalised soaring version that rang out around the church.
I don’t think I will be able to play it again, well not for a long time anyway.
Rest in peace Johnny.
I think it has become somewhat fashionable to think that the Derry Air is beneath virtuoso playing.I do not hold this belief.
A few years ago there was a fantastic TV programme on this Air which lasted for 1 hour and involved various artists giving their interpretation of it.Eric Clapton as I remember played a beautiful version.
Played well, this melody deserves the appreciation that is denied it by folk who really would be better musicians for allowing it to breathe.
I have played this at funerals and it is a tear jerker,but I think that is to be expected at funerals anyway.
I may be biased of course coz me granny and father where frae The Brandywell. 
Uilliam
This is appropriate, as the lyric writer never set
foot in Ireland.
http://www.standingstones.com/dannyboy.html
It’s a song for Irish-Americans, popular because
it allows them to wax nostalgic of their parents
or grandparents or great-grandparents who came
over from Ireland.
The tune it’s based on is quite nice, as Uilliam said,
and stripped of the lyric, does not need to be trite
at all.
I am glad you decided to play it, and that you came away feeling like you had really done the tune, and your wife’s uncle, justice.
I love it. A well done version is heart-string throbbing. The emotion in it, tune as well as lyrics, is deep and moving. It’s a shame that it has earned, or rather, been given, the negative reputation. Played or sung badly, or too often, yes, any tune gets tiresome, but to demean it because the lyric writer wasn’t standing on the right soil at the time is just petty.
Uilliam wrote
A few years ago there was a fantastic TV programme on this Air
, I know the show you are talking about, I have it on VHS, stored away somewhere.
fearfaoin, I don’t think it particularly matters that the lyricist was not Irish, it is the sentiment of the song that gets people emotional.
Just a thought though; if the original tune had been called ‘The Lanarkshire air’ and the lyrics refered to a ‘Donald’, would the song have been as popular with the Irish?
Apart from the obvious connection with Ireland in the name of the tune, and the name Danny, there really is not a lot in the song lyrics to make it an ‘Irish’ song; yet it prevails, and it has been done to death in cover versions for years.
That was my point. I mistook your OP as
saying you stopped playing it because
people were singing along who had never
been to Ireland. I just reread and you’re
complaint was about people turning it into
a drinking song. My bad.
Apart from the obvious connection with Ireland in the name of the tune, and the name Danny, there really is not a lot in the song lyrics to make it an ‘Irish’ song; yet it prevails, and it has been done to death in cover versions for years.
You’re right, the lyrics, even as they are, could
be interpreted as taking place in Scotland or
Appalachia, for example. I wonder how much
of its staying power is inertia and how much is
due to it being a good song.
I wonder how much of its staying power is inertia and how much is due to it being a good song.
I met someone a few years ago, here in Australia who had never heard ‘Danny Boy’. I had been pestered by a friend for a couple of years to sing it and up to that point I had managed to avoid it.
This particular night I sang it, there was a woman there who cried and said that it was a beautiful song. I found out that her parents were from Ireland but she had never heard the song! Her family must have been one of those rare ones who were not into music, though I still was amazed to learn she had never heard the song Danny Boy.
Another thing about the song is that it was not sung that often in the modern Protestant community. (I don’t know about pre-troubles)
The song was seen as being a Catholic song because of the line ‘You’ll kneel and say an ‘Ave’ there for me’.
A strange country at times 
(edited to add; ‘an’ before Ave)
It sounds to me that you tapped into the raaga of the song.
The elements of this are
- it took a new life of its own
- your humility as to your role in this.