Sir,—The article ‘George Petrie—a “type” of genius’ (HI 32.5, Sept./Oct. 2024) was a welcome addition to the portrait of this remarkable nineteenth-century polymath. Dermot McGuinne not only catalogues Petrie’s contributions to the area of specialised print and Irish type design but also provides the reader with stunning visual examples of his work.
McGuinne’s scholarship confirms the prediction of Bishop Charles Grave in his eulogy at the Royal Irish Academy, delivered after Petrie’s death in 1866:
‘There is no reason to fear that his memory should fade and I make bold to predict that great works illustrating the laws, the art, the language of this country, projected in his time and promoted by his efforts, will hereafter be the monuments attesting to the service that Petrie has rendered to the cause of our national literature’.
One hundred years later, Myles Dillon, president of the same Royal Irish Academy, seconded that prediction when he called George Petrie
‘the father of Irish archaeology, one might say father of Irish history, and of the study of Irish art and music. More than that, he was a man of pure integrity, so that there is a moral quality about his work which raises it above the level of mere learning.’
Petrie introduced his ground-breaking Ancient music of Ireland in 1855 with these prophetic words: ‘The genius and expression of our music will thus be fixed and its noblest stores preserved for the admiration of future ages and the perpetual pride of the Irish race’. Donal O’Sullivan, pioneer traditional music scholar, gave his verdict on Petrie: ‘It would be difficult to speak too highly of this monumental work … Petrie combined knowledge and enthusiasm in full measure, and on this book, he should be rated as great a nation-builder in the cultural sphere as was O’Connell in the sphere of politics’.
If today’s devotees of Irish culture and history know little about Petrie’s unique contribution to Irish lettering styles and typefaces, they may unconsciously know much more about the global impact of his extensive music collection. We are particularly indebted to Petrie’s music collection, for it was in this volume that the famous ‘Londonderry Air’ was first published. Jane Ross, Co. Londonderry, annotated the music she heard from an itinerant fiddler in 1851 and gave it to Petrie, who published it under the title ‘Name Unknown’.
When Fred E. Weatherly, English lawyer and lyricist, was introduced to the ‘Londonderry Air’ by his Irish-born sister-in-law, Margaret Weatherly from Colorado, he set his own lyrics to the popular seventeenth-century tune. After ‘Danny Boy’ was published in 1913, English music historian Sir Hubert Parry pronounced it to be the ‘most beautiful folk-tune in the world’. Millions around the world would concur with that assessment. That too might be counted as part of the enduring legacy of George Petrie, father of the study of Irish music, and ‘type’.—Yours etc.,
ROBERT F. LYONS
Illinois, USA