Northern Ireland's Unofficial National Anthem Quiz

Answer:

"Danny Boy" is a popular ballad that was written in 1910 by Frederic Weatherly, an English lawyer. He originally set his lyrics to another tune, but it's thought that in 1913 his Irish-born sister-in-law sent him a copy of the tune "Londonderry Air". This melody was collected in 1851 by Jane Ross of Limavady from an unknown traveling fiddler, and upon receiving it Weatherly modified his lyrics to fit the rhyme and meter of the tune. He gave the finished song to the opera singer Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs of the new century.

Throughout the years "Danny Boy" has been considered an unofficial anthem by Irish Americans and Irish Canadians. It became popular for funerals and memorial services despite not being an official part of the ceremony, but the National Catholic Reporter wrote in 2001 that it "cannot be played during Mass". This prompted a retired Irish American police officer to say "I want 'Danny Boy' sung at my funeral mass, and if it isn't, I'm going to get up and walk out."

The song has been recorded many hundreds of times, by artists as disparate as Elvis Presley, Sinéad O'Connor and Eric Clapton. The song was also taken up by the professional boxer Barry McGuigan, with his father Pat (who once represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest) singing it in the ring before his fights. McGuigan was originally from Clones in the Republic of Ireland, but he became a UK citizen so that he could compete for British titles. When he was at the height of his career as world flyweight champion in the mid-1980's he regularly attracted thousands of people to his fights at the King's Hall in Belfast, and "Danny Boy" was sung rather than the British or Irish national anthems. In 1985 he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, becoming the first person not born in the United Kingdom to win the award.