Thomas Connellan was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 composer.

Connellan was born about 1640/1645 at Cloonmahon, County Sligo. Both he and his brother, William Connellan

William Connellan

William Connellan, born in Cloonmahon, County Sligo, fl. mid-17th century.Connellan was a harper, who may or may not have composed the tune Caoineach Luimnigh . He was well known in Scotland, where he travelled extensively...

 became harpers. Thomas is famous for the words and music of Molly MacAlpin, which is better known today as "Carolan's Dream".
Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough Carolan, also known as Turlough O'Carolan, was a blind, early Irish harper, composer and singer whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. He was the last great Irish harper-composer and is considered by many to be Ireland's national composer...

, Ireland's pre-eminent composer of the 17th and 18th centuries, loved the song so much that he is stated as saying that he would have traded all his own tunes in order to be the composer of Molly MacAlpin.

Another tune by Connellan, Molly St. George, along with Molly MacAlpin and Eileen Aroon (by Cearbhall O'Dalaigh

Cearbhall Óg Ó Dálaigh

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was a 17th century Irish language poet and harpist, who composed the song "Eileanóir a Rún".Cearbhall was a common name amongst people of the Ó Dálaigh surname, and more than one poet of that surname bore the name Cearbhall. The Cearbhall Óg who composed 'Eileanóir a Rún' was...

), comprise the three earliest Irish harp tunes with extant lyrics. Yet another of Connellan's tunes was called Fáinne Geal an Lae (The Dawning of the Day

The Dawning of the Day

The Dawning of the Day is an old Irish air composed by the blind harpist Thomas Connellan in the 17th Century. An Irish-language song with this name was published by Edward Walsh in 1847 in Irish Popular Songs and later translated into English as The Dawning of the Day...

).
An Irish-language song with this name (Fáinne Geal an Lae) was published by Edward Walsh in 1847 and later translated into English as The Dawning of the Day. The melody of this song was used by Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...

 to his poem, Raglan Road. In this latter-day incarnation, it has reached a worldwide audience, being covered by The Dubliners

The Dubliners

The Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.-Formation and history:The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin...

, Luke Kelly

Luke Kelly

Luke Kelly was an Irish singer and folk musician from Dublin, Ireland, notable as a founding member of the band The Dubliners.-Early life:...

, Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

, Joan Osborne

Joan Osborne

Joan Elizabeth Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her song "One of Us". She has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown.-Biography:Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb...

, Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....

, and Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

.

According to Arthur O'Neill

Arthur O'Neill

Arthur Edward Bruce O'Neill , was an Irish Ulster Unionist Party politician who was the first MP to be killed in World War I...

 (1734-1818):

• Thomas Conlan (Connellan) the great harper was born before my time. I heard he played very well. He made himself conspicuous in Scotland by means of the tune Lochaber, which he plastered on the Scots as one of his own compositions whereas it is well known it was composed by Miles O'Reilly of Killinkere, in the county Cavan under the name of 'Limerick's Lamentation.' However Conlan arrived to city honours in Edinburgh, chiefly by means of that tune among others. I heard they made him a bailie or burgomaster in Edinburgh where he died. (p.13)

Edinburgh Council record of 11th January 1717 states:

• The same day the Council appointed the Dean of Gild & his council to admit and receive Thomas Conlan harper, John Reid servitor to captain Matthew Campbell and servitor to the deceist Earle of Fforfar all to be burgesses in common forme.(p.21)

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