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Brereton ballad sheets are quite distinct in style. Poor paper, poor quality of print, misprints, misspellings and omissions are commonplace. A good example of his poor printing practice is demonstrated in one of the ballad sheets presented here, The Lovely Maid of Williamstown, in which ‘Williamstown’ is spelt in no less than six different ways throughout the ballad.
Brereton ballads were illustrated with the same few pictorial woodcuts. More often than not, the woodcut bears no relation to the subject matter of the song, and the same woodcut was often re-used many times on different sheets.
ITMA has an extensive collection of over 3,400 original and copied ballad sheets; of these 330 contain the Brereton imprint. The full collection of ballad sheets is available to visitors within the Archive.
With thanks to Leslie Shepard, Jill Shepard Glenstrup, Dan Milner, & Dr John Moulden, who has donated to ITMA a copy of his 2006 Ph.D. thesis The Printed Ballad in Ireland: A Guide to the Popular Printing of Songs in Ireland, 1760–1920. ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections, or of their loan for copying.
Maeve Gebruers, 1 October 2015
A much admired love song called The Banks of the Nile
Hagerty’s ball
A new song called Annie Lisle
An elegy on the death of the much lamented Doctor D M O’Brien
A new song called Grogan’s Grove
A much admired song called Caroline of Edinburgh Town
A new song ballad The Barrack Hill Cavan
A devine poem written on Saint Francis founder of the Order of the Cord
Most tragic lines written on the seduction and lamentable death of Anny Gray
A much admired song called The lovely maid of Williamstown
Champagne Charlie
The praises of Limerick
Dublin Jack of all trades
The loyal lovers
A new song called The convict on the Isle of France
A new song called The militia man
A new song called The maid of Ballymote
The mariner’s grave
A new song called The pride of Ardagh
New song called The emigrant’s farewell to Donegal
A new song called The poor wanderer sighs and grief on parting his native land
New song called William and Jane on the Banks of Clyde
