Hello,

I'm doing my bachelor's thesis on Irish nationalist music (most likely songs about Easter Rising) and I'm thinking of analysing The Foggy Dew. My problem is that I cannot find information about when the song was written and I can't get much out of the song itself. In many books (and also here) it's said to be written after 1919 and the earliest recordings and references in books I've found are from the 1940s/1950s. Can anyone help me? (I also need to know where the information is from to put it in the bibliography.) Another problem I have is the lyricist of the song. It seems to me that Charles O'Neill is the most believable author but I don't have any sources of that. I cannot find O'Boyle's book from Finland (at least in libraries) or travel to visit the archives in Ireland... Good someone recommend another book, website etc?

I already gave up on this song once because of these problems but decided to give it another try. I'd love to compare it with Erin go Bragh (Row in the Town). That might even give me a good basis to build on in my master's thesis... But that's still far away. Thank you for your help in advance.

Minna