Gerard Farrelly
Seolta Records
19 Bayview Avenue
North Strand
Dublin 3
EIRE
E-mail seoltarecords@ireland.com

Re: "The Isle Of Innisfree"

I discovered this wonderful website recently and with great interest.

To everyone who has been inquiring about or posting information on the song "Isle Of Innisfree" - theme of John Ford's classic film,"The Quiet Man", please allow me to clarify some issues on the subject.

I am a professional musician, who resides at the above address and I am the son of the composer of this song. My father's name was Richard Farrelly but he was better known all his life as Dick Farrelly and he was a member of An Garda Siochana, (The Irish Police-force). He died in August 1990 at the family home in Churchtown, Dublin. My father wrote the words and music of the "Isle Of Innisfree" in 1949 on a bus journey to Dublin from his hometown of Kells,Co.Meath.
This was his most famous song. It became a huge international hit for Bing Crosby in 1952 and was chosen by John Ford as the theme music for "The Quiet Man", however, neither my father's name nor the title of the song appeared in the production credits. Victor Young was credited with the entire musical score. The publishers of the song are Peter Maurice Music Limited who are now part of EMI Music Publishing.

To find out more about my father and the history of this and other songs he wrote, please visit the website - stoneandfarrelly.com - The website is that of the Irish singer Sinead Stone and myself.

We have recently released our debut album, "Legacy of a Quiet Man", which is a collection of my father's best known songs including the "Isle Of Innisfree"; the CD is available through our website.

Incidentally, my father was not writing about the same place in Co. Sligo that W.B.Yeats wrote about in his poem "Lake Isle Of Innisfree". There is no connection whatsoever between the poem and the song. Also, the song is totally original and is not based on any other work.

I would be delighted to hear from anyone who may be interested in the song, my father, or our CD "Legacy of a Quiet Man". You may e-mail me at the above.

On a personal note - It is a source of great pleasure to both myself and the family that 50 years after my father composed this song and 12 years since his death, that so many people the world over so love his "Innisfree", and are still recording and performing it.

Kind regards,
Gerard Farrelly

PS: The second last line of the song is - "But though they paved the footways here with gold-dust" and not "pave the footpaths".