Guest leeneia wrote:
(I believe the words were written by an Englishman during the era known as the Celtic Revival.)

It's probably been noted in another thread at some point, but here is a site with a fair amount of research on the history of Danny Boy

I keep meaning to learn the tune Bunting transcribed for Aisling An Oig-Fhir, but haven't quite gotten that proverbial round tuit.

I do occasionally mess about with playing the Derry Aire as a bouncy march, similar to "76 Trombones" by Meredith Wilson (from "The Music Man"). Adding the Danny Boy lyrics to such an arrangement would be downright sarcastic, but the melody is very pretty and can be fun to play with.