The Rose of Tralee story:

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Did you know there was a Galway connection? read on ....

Mary O'Connor a shoemaker's daughter who lived in the aptly named Brogue Lane in Tralee, and William Pembroke (Willie) Mutchinock, the man who immortalised her, came in touch with each other when she was in the bloom of life. Mary was in her late teens and working at the Mulchinock home as childrens nurse. Maria Mulchinock was her employer at West Villa - she had worked as a dairy maid for the Muklchinock family at Cloghers House before going there at the age of 17.

While Mulchinock was a frequent visitor to West Villa he became infatuated by the beauty of Mary O'Connor. He visited her at her home in Brogue Lane, where she lived with her parents, two sisters - Bridget and Ellen, and brother Willie. The wealthy Mulchinocks disapproved of the friendship because of Mary's hunble background, but Willie asked Mary to marry him. She was deeply in love with him too, but rejected his offer of marriage on the grounds that this would estrange him from his family and friends.

Many months later he took Mary out one evening, just as the sun was setting on a blaze of glory beneath the sea. The young moon had just come above the mountain and all the valley was hushed. There for the first time he uttered the words that have now become world famous.

The pale moon was rising above the green mountain,
The sun was declining beneath the blue sea,
When I strayed with my love to the pure crystal fountain,
That stands in the beautiful vale of Tralee.

She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer,
Yet 'twas not her beauty alone that won me,
Oh no, 'twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary, The Rose of Tralee.

The cool shades of evening their mantle were spreading,
And Mary all smiling was listening to me.
The moon through the valley her pale rays were shredding,
When I won the heart of the Rose of Tralee.

The following evening Daniel O'Connell, the famous Irish patriot, addressed a meeting in Denny Street Tralee, and William Mulchinock led a contingent of supporters from all parts of Kerry. A man named Legget the Nailer, who lived in the Mall was also at the meeting and was involved in a scuffle with a rival group. He was mortally wounded by a sword thrust and Willie was wrongfully accused of his murder.

The only course open to him was to flee the country and he headed at first for Slieve Mish as the police expected he would, but then he quietly doubled back by way of Blennerville to the other side of the Bay, then to Barrow Harbour and freedom. Mutchinock made his way to India where he worked as a War Correspondent and "midst the shot and shell and blinding heat", Willie often found solace in remembering the happy days he spent wandering the little mountain roads around Tralee with Mary.

In the early Spring of 1849 Willie Mulchinock, whose name had been cleared in connection with the killing of Legget, returned to Tralee after six years in India. He called into The Kings Arms to freshen up before calling on Mary's house. As he sipped a drink the landlord of the Inn closed the curtain as a funeral was passing by. Willie enquired who was dead and the landlord¹s reply were words that Willie would never forget: 'Tis Mary O'Connor, sir, The Rose of Tralee.

Willie disappeared for many months but finally married, after much pressure from his friends, an old girlfriend, Alicia Keogh from Ballinasloe. Alicia was both shrewd and calculating and in direct contrast to Mary's gentle ways. In the Autmn of 1849, both set sail for America where he felt he could forget the memory of Mary O'Connor. In 1855 they finally parted and the two children of the marriage, Alice and Bernadette remained in America, and he returned to Ireland.

By now Willie was a broken man and he began to find a great deal of comfort in alcohol. He was often seen walking the fields around Ballyard singing and muttering to himself the words of his song, and of another verse, which he since added:

In the far fields of India mid war's dreadful thunder,
Her voice was a solace and comfort to me;
But the chill hand of death has now rent us assunder,
I'm lonesome tonight for the Rose of Tralee.

In 1864 he moved again to an edging house in Ashe Street and on October 13th of that year he died. He was then 44. His last wish was that he be buried alongside Mary¹s lonely grave in Clogherbrien. There they rest in peace.