Sam Henry

Sam Henry (1870–1952) was an Irish folk-song collector, photographer and folklorist, best known for his collection of ballads and songs in Songs of the People. His collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of folk-songs from Northern Ireland between the wars.

Songs of the People was a series which ran from 17 November 1923 to 1939 in the Coleraine newspaper The Northern Constitution. For twelve of those years the editor was Sam Henry who contributed upwards of 500 songs of high quality. The first song printed was "The Flower of Sweet Dunmull", collected from Nancy Harbison, Ballywillan, Portrush. Although the songs were collected in a single district around Coleraine, there is a great amount of diversity, which includes native Irish songs and songs of foreign origin: Scotland, England and North America. Henry continued to collect and annotate songs after the newspaper series finished.

Audio: Sean McMahon, 2009

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