Bound Collection of Twenty-Three Irish Street Ballad Broadsides

Dublin, Ireland: Peter Brereton, 1860. Very Good. Dublin: P. [Peter] Brereton, [ca. 1860s]. Folio (41.5x23cm). Modern sprinkled calf over boards; spine in five compartments with black gilt-lettered spine label. Tipped in collection of twenty-three (23) broadsides (approx. 11x28cm) each decorated with a woodcut illustration at the head and followed by text. Broadsides have mild wear and toning to edges, one ballad (Schoolmaster & Labourer) has loss of text at bottom edge. Mild shelfwear and rubbing to boards. Binding sound. Overall, Very Good. Fifteen of the ballads have the P. Brereton imprint on the bottom or have woodcuts found on the broadsides identifying Brereton as the printer.

Brereton printed dozens of these Irish Street Ballads, which were cheaply and carelessly printed, riddled as they are with errors. "A closer investigation reveals the blemishes of composition-inverted letters, multiple type-faces, broken sorts, uneven leading, etc. Clearly, neither the printer nor reader cared much for these minor details. The broadsheets were printed quickly and inexpensively," (Kuhn). A lovely survival of Irish street literature highlighting the connection between the country's print trade and its robust oral tradition.

Reference: Andrew Kuhn, "Reading Room Log: Brereton Broadsides." From the John J. Burns Library Blog, accessed online.

Broadside ballads included are as follows, with all errors retained:

1. Rights of Man
2. A New Song call'd the Limrick Rake
3. Garryowen
4. Linfs written on the Barley Corn
5. A New Song on the Hireling Fairs of Ulster
6. A New Song on Lovely Katey of Liskehan
7. The Irish Tennant Farmers Lament from Eviction from His Native Home
8. Lines Written on the Illberation of the Clergy
9. A new song call'd the Girl I Left Behind Me
10. A Much Admired Song Call'd Carroline of Edinborough Town
11. On The Love Of Jesus
12. Shelling Green Peas
13. An Elegy on the Death of the Much Lamented Doctor DM O'Brien
14. A New Song on the Races of Roscommon
15. Love Your Own Land
16. New Song Called The Bold Rake of Limrick
17. A New Song Called William and Jane on the Banks of Clyde
18. A Dialouge Betweef A Schoolmaster & Labourer
19. Lines Written on the Most Dreadful Fire That Brokeout in Chicago in America composed by Jeramiah Cronan
20. A New Song on Luckey Elopement
21. A New Song Called the Gay Old Hag
22. The Irish Rake
23. A New Song Call'd the Barrack Hill Cavan.