The Coolin

The Coolin, or The Coolun, is an Irish air often characterised as one of the most beautiful in the traditional repertoire.

In Irish, its name has been given as An Chúileann or An Chúilfhionn ("the fair haired girl" or "the fair lady") depending on the text used. The tune is also known as "The Lady of the Desert".

The air, and the texts fitted to it, have a long and very complex history. Its exact provenance is unknown, but it has been variously asserted by different authors as dating from the 13th century, from the time of Henry VIII, or from the 17th century, though the latter is the most credible. There are at least two main Irish language texts and a number of later English translations, or interpretations of both; there are also English words (such as those by Moore) which are not a translation of either Irish version.

The air itself is sometimes claimed to have been composed by Carolan, though John Glen (1900) said that the "ancient Irish melody" was in fact usually known as "Molly St George" at the beginning of the 18th century. The latter-named tune has been often been associated with the great 17th-century harper Thomas Connellan. Connellan was also cited alongside Carolan as a possible composer of The Coolin, but as Glen noted, many supposed "that the tune is older than either of them".

The version of The Coolin printed by Edward Bunting in The Ancient Music of Ireland (1840) was taken from the playing of Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh (Dennis Hempson), who himself claimed to have learned it from the playing of Cornelius Lyons early in the previous century. Though Bunting's setting claims to present the tune with variations, it in fact appears to print only Lyons' once-fashionable baroque variations while omitting the main tune.Patrick Weston Joyce, who said that Bunting's version was "wanting in simplicity", printed a version of the tune collected from the playing of a fiddler, Hugh O'Beirne, that he said was very similar to that he recalled being sung in his youth in 1830s County Limerick.

Other versions appeared in several late 18th century collections, as well as in the 1795 opera The Wicklow Mountains, written by John O'Keeffe with music by William Shield.

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