Sam Henry was an Irish folk-song collector, photographer and folklorest, 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

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 between the wars.

Songs of the People was a series which ran from 17 November 1923 to 1939 in the Coleraine

Coleraine

Coleraine is a large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast and east of Derry, both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections...

 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

Portrush

Portrush is a small seaside resort town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the County Londonderry border. The main part of the old town, including the railway station as well as most hotels, restaurants and bars, is built on a mile–long peninsula, Ramore Head, pointing north-northwest....

. Although the songs were collected in a single region 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.

Works

• Songs of the People edited by Gale Huntington, Lani Herrman with contributions from John Moulden. 1990 (University of Georgia Press) ISBN 0 8203 1258 4

• Songs of the People Part two - songs which were published in the newspaper series "Songs of the People" at a time between 1928 and 1932 when Sam Henry was ill