To merely review the list of those who sang “Danny Boy,” the fiddlers who played it, the groups who performed it, or orchestras that trumpeted it, boggles the mind. Each year, it seems, another superb rendition joins a list that already includes the likes of Black 47, Harry Belafonte, Count Basie, Ruben Blades, Johnny Cash, Rosemary Clooney, Judy Collins, and Morton Downey Sr., to name but a few. “Danny Boy” is unique in that people are willing to overlook a bad rendition if the singer is earnest and the moment is true. Take, for instance, the boxer, Jack Doyle, nicknamed “The Gorgeous Gael,” who gained the love and respect of the Irish in the 1930s when he fought for the British heavyweight title against Jack Peterson. Although Doyle was disqualified in the second round for committing a low blow, the flagrant foul failed to quell his popularity, even after his next fight when he was knocked out in the first round by Buddy Baer. Before long, Doyle acquired a new, less flattering nickname, “Canvas Back Jack,”
