Annotation:Dr. Delany

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DOCTOR DELANY. Irish, Planxty. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC. Composed by Turlough O'Carolan in honor of Patrick Delany (c. 1685-1768), whom O'Sullivan notes was a Professor of Oratory in Dublin and afterwards Dean of Down. Delany was one of Carolan's patrons, and "delighted" in the bard, according to harper Arthur O'Neill (see his Memoirs). He was friends with Swift and Sheridan, and O'Sullivan quotes a letter from the former to Alexander Pope (dated 7th January, 1737, in which Swift writes that Delany was "one of the few men not spoilt by an access of fortune", and, while having the qualities of generosity and hospitality, they "often left him without money as before."

Source for notated version: Samuel, Ann and Peter Thompson's The Hibernian Muse; a Collection of Irish Airs, including the Most Favourite Compositions of Carolan, the Celebrated Irish Bard (London. c. 1786) [O'Sullivan]

Printed sources: Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1985; No. 32, p. 41. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 32, p. 119.

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