Robert Dwyer Joyce

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Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) was born in County Limerick, Ireland, where his parents, Garret Joyce (b. 1796) and Elizabeth O'Dwyer, lived in the northern foothills of the Ballyhoura Mountains, west of Ballyorgan. Robert had three brothers: Michael, John and the writer Patrick Weston Joyce.

Robert Joyce became a civil servant and then a doctor. He was a famous collector of Irish music and contributed many airs which were included in The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, published in 1855. He also produced a volume of poems, but remains most famous for contributions to the field of Irish music. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Blacksmith of Limerick, and The Boys of Wexford are some of his more well-known works.

A plaque inscribed in Irish and English marks the house in Glenosheen where the Joyce brothers lived. It is signposted from the road between Ardpatrick and Kildorrery.

Already known as a poet, Robert Joyce emigrated to Boston, where he practised medicine and had some literary success with Ballads of Irish Chivalry (1872) and Deirdre (1876) -- this latter sold 10,000 copies in its first week of publication.

He returned in 1883 to Dublin, where he died the same year. The title of one of his poems, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, was borrowed for the Ken Loach film which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.