Search Results for 'Arthur Colohan'

Nicholas Arthur Colohan was born in Enniskillen on August 12th 1884 to Nicholas Whistler and Lizzie Colohan. The family moved to The Villa opposite the Crescent in Galway. He may have been tutored at home as his family were reasonably wealthy. There are no records of him attending either the Presentation or the Jesuit primary schools. The earliest record of him in education relates to his first year in secondary education in the Bish. As a pupil, he was far from impressive and this prompted his parents to send him to Mungret College Limerick as a boarder and there he finished his secondary education.

Our first illustration today is of the cover of the sheet music for the song ‘Galway Bay’ as sung by Bing Crosby. It was written by Dr Arthur Colohan, apparently in memory of his brother who was drowned somewhere near Seapoint. I have also been told that it got its first airing in the hotel at the top of Prospect Hill. It seems Colohan, a medical student, was in there with a group of his fellow undergraduates when he told them he had written a song and sat down at the piano to play and sing it for them. The legend is that they fell all over the place laughing. He of course had the last laugh as his song became one of the world’s best sellers, topping the charts in Britain in1950.

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