Leicester Chronicler - Arthur Colahan

Arthur Nicholas Colahan was perhaps more often recognised by the inmates of Leicester's Welford Road prison than by the millions who purchased his songs, either in sheet music form or as recordings.

He was a quiet man who was often homesick for his beloved Galway Bay in Ireland. These feelings led him to write one of the most popular songs of all time, and the best-selling song of 1953. Sadly, by the time Colahan's music was selling in the High Street he had died and had been buried in an unmarked grave, back in his Irish birthplace

Arthur Colahan was born in Enniskillen on August 12th 1884, the eldest son of Nicholas and Lizzie Colahan. He was a boarder at Mungret College in Limerick, and then enrolled at University College Dublin in 1900 where he gained an Arts Degree. He took up medicine and graduated from Queen's College, Galway in 1913. He was a member of The Literary and Debating Society at his college and took part in many college plays where his skill as a composer and song writer was first revealed.

He began a medical career in the County Infirmary in Galway. When World War I broke out Colahan enlisted in the British Army's Medical Corps and served in India. There, he was badly affected by mustard gas. After the war, he settled in Leicester where he worked as a neurological specialist in the police and prison services. His hobby was music, and he wrote songs with fine memorable melodies including Until Gods Day, Cade Ring, Asthoreen Bawn, Macushla Mine, The Kylemore Pass and the beautiful Galway Bay.

He often spent his holidays back in his beloved County Galway and liked nothing better than to while away an evening at the piano while his brothers and sisters sang Irish songs, including his own that he had written whilst living and working in Leicester. He enjoyed hunting and fishing, but above all he delighted in listening to music and playing the piano

Galway Bay was written in memory of one of his brothers who drowned in the Bay. It is a song about the grief of exile. Had he lived, we feel Arthur Colahan would not have objected to the later version of his song, as made famous by Bing Crosby, despite the American singer's decision on political grounds to alter the word 'English' to 'strangers'.

The song was included in the 1952 film the Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, which told the story of a disgraced American boxer retiring to Ireland where he finds true love. However, Arthur Colahan is not included in the film's credits.

Dr Colahan died at his Leicester home at 9 Prebend Street off London Road on 15 September 1952 and his remains were moved to Galway for burial in the family grave. Prebend Street is in the former parish of St Margaret, which was a prebend of Lincoln Cathedral until 1878. The street is first recorded in 1828.

Family disputes, particularly with relatives of his estranged wife meant that his closest relatives were not present at his funeral and interment. Even today there is no mention of his name on the Celtic Cross in Galway Cemetery that marks the last resting place of the man of whom it was said "money didn't interest him, Glory didn't interest him. He was very gentle and very humble."

In Leicester, a blue plaque mounted on the wall of his former home commemorates the gentle, shy and good natured Irishman who gave the world an immortal song which stands for all time as lines of beautiful and poignant poetry.

Galway Bay

If maybe someday I'll go back to Ireland,
Be it only at the closing of my day,
To see again the moonlight over Claddagh,
And watch the sun go down on Galway Bay.

To see again the ripple of a trout stream,
The women in the meadows baling hay.
Just to sit beside a turf fire in a cabin,
And watch the barefoot gosoons at their play.

The winds that blow across the bogs from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands digging praties
Speak a language that the English do not know.

And yet they come and try to teach us their way.
They blame us just for being what we are.
But they might as well go try and catch a moonbeam,
Or light a penny candle from a star.

And if there's going to be a life hereafter,
And somehow I feel sure there's going to be,
I will ask my God to let me make my heaven,
In that dear land across the Irish Sea.