Dear Noreen,

The tune is not known as "The Dream of Alwyn", someone is making a huge mistake here. "The Isle Of Innisfree" and "The Dream Of Alwyn" are two totally different works, written by different composers and at very different times. This can be verified by the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society.

Hi Tim,

My father used the word "Innisfree" as a metaphor for Ireland. He once said in an interview that it was Ireland he had in mind when he wrote the song. In relation to my father not getting a credit in the film, this kind of thing happened a lot then. Very often Hollywood just gave a single credit to the person who orchastrated the musical score. Today as you know, every small piece of music that appears in a movie must by law be credited, usually at the end of the film.

Another great example of this is in the film "Casablanca". The famous song from that film is "As Time Goes By" - again the writer of that song never got a credit. I think it was Bernard Herman who got the only credit for the music, it might have been Max Stiner, I can't remember.
The use of "Isle Of Innisfree" in The Quiet Man was above board and my father has always received his due royalties from the film and recordings of the song. It's just very sad that he was not given his due credit, which is part of the reason why there is so much confusion about the song.

Dear Alice,

Thank you very much for your kind remarks, I will email you soon.


Kind regards to all,
Gerard Farrelly