- Style
- Celtic
- Tradition
- Irish
- Form
- Song air
- Keys
- E minor and A minor
- Level
- 1
- Played on
- Voice, Fiddle, and Mandolin
In the public domain. Source
Music
100bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
In Irish speech a "star" is a beautiful woman. The air carried several older songs before this one, among them a sheet ballad called "My Love Nell," and George Petrie noted it more than once in the 19th century under other titles. A close English relative is "Dives and Lazarus," which Vaughan Williams set as the hymn tune "Kingsfold."
The words most people sing were written by Cathal MacGarvey (1866 to 1927) of Ramelton, County Donegal, about a young man who meets Rose McCann near Banbridge. Herbert Hughes published them in his Irish Country Songs in 1936. Session players use the air as a march and as a waltz.