I was talking to my friend Tom the piper who is a well-known fixture in Portland ME about RODNEY'S GLORY and THE BLACKBIRD. It was he who toldme that O'Sullivan wrote the poem RODNEY'S GLORY as an attempt to get an early release from the British navy and he was absoluelt right. He also says that THE BLACKBIRD set dance tune was composed by a Mrs. McGarvey of Co. Clare to the tune of the song of the same name. It was in the repetoire of Willie Clancy. The poem RODNEY'S GLORY fits to the tune of the same name

Brían