Macushla

"In 1910 Carlow native Josephine Rowe’s poem Macushla – literally ‘my pulse’, but intended to mean ‘my darling’ – is set to music by Harold Robert White, writing under the pseudonym of Dermot MacMurrough. John McCormack, in one of his earliest outings for the Victor Label, records it in 1911. He hits a remarkable B flat at the end of the song, his highest voice ever recorded. And so begins a chain that includes – among others - American movies Paddy The Next Best Thing (1933) and Hawaii Calls (1938). Frank Patterson sings it in Michael Collins (1996), and not only does Hilary Swank have Mo cuishle embroidered on her boxing silks in Clint Eastwood's movie Million Dollar Baby (2004), but the crowd sing it. Rufus Wainwright does a gorgeous version, all defiance and heartbreak. Macushla made McCormack and White wealthy. When Josephine Rowe died in 1945, her entire estate came to a mere £160, 14 shillings and sixpence. "