W. H. Grattan Flood
Encyclopedia
Chevalier
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 William Henry Grattan Flood (1 November 1857 - 6 August 1928), renowned musicologist and historian, was born in Lismore
Lismore, County Waterford
Lismore is a town in County Waterford, Ireland. It is located where the N72 road crosses the River Blackwater.-History:It was founded by Saint Mochuda, also known as Saint Carthage. In the 7th century, Lismore was the site of the well-known Lismore Abbey. It is also home to Lismore Castle, the...

 in 1857. As a writer and ecclesiastical composer, his personal contributions to Irish musical form produced enduring works. As an historian his output was prolific on topics of local and national historical or biographical interest.

Grattan Flood was given the title Chevalier
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 by Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

 in 1917, and thereafter was called Chevalier Flood by his close friends and admirers. He is not to be confused with the unrelated Irish statesmen Henry Flood
Henry Flood
Henry Flood , Irish statesman, son of Warden Flood, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became proficient in the classics...

 or Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain.-Early life:Grattan was born at...

.

Music & higher education

Chevalier Flood's family had a great influence on his education. He was born to William Flood and Catherine Fitzsimons. He had an older sister, Agnes and four brothers, one of which was a twin brother, Frank. Flood received education from his uncle, Andrew Fitzsimons, who owned and operated an academy for boys. The school prepared boys for entrance to Mount Melleray
Mount Melleray Abbey
Mount Melleray Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded in 1833. It is situated on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, near Cappoquin, Diocese of Waterford.-History:...

. He received musical education from his earliest years from his aunt, Elizabeth Fitzsimons. He also received private tuition in music from Sir Robert Stewart (1825-1894). Flood was so good as a pianist at age nine he was invited by the Duke of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the richest and most influential aristocratic families in England since the 16th century, and have been rivalled in political influence perhaps only...

 to Lismore Castle
Lismore Castle
Lismore Castle is located in the town of Lismore, in County Waterford in Ireland. It was largely re-built in the Gothic style during the mid-nineteenth century by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire.-Early history:...

 to give a piano recital. He was also very proficient at the organ and was named organist of Saint Peter's Pro-Cathedral, Belfast, at age nineteen. After Mount Melleray, Flood went to All Hallows College
All Hallows College
All Hallows College is a Roman Catholic college located in Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland. All Hallows is one of six linked colleges of Dublin City University, meaning that the college's degrees are validated and accredited by the university.-History:...

, the Catholic University
Catholic University of Ireland
The Catholic University of Ireland was a Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland and was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University of Ireland and its associated colleges which were nondenominational...

. Flood was a devout Catholic and spent some years studying for the priesthood.

Chevalier left the seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...

 to become professor of music at the Jesuit Colleges of Tullabeg
St Stanislaus College
St Stanislaus College was a school in Tullabeg, County Offaly, Ireland. It was founded as a school for boys under the age of thirteen in 1818. It was endowed by the O'Briens, a local gentry family, and was intended to cater for upper middle class Catholics, as was the sister college at Clongowes...

 and Clongowes Wood
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...

, and from there went on to Saint Wilfrid’s Cotton Hall, Staffordshire.

Chevalier Flood returned to Ireland to teach at St Kieran's College
St Kieran's College
St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny, Ireland is primarily a Secondary school for boys. It has long been a nursery for hurling, and is located on College Road in Kilkenny in County Kilkenny, Ireland.- History :...

, Kilkenny
Kilkenny
Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...

, and St Macartan's College
St Macartan's College
St. Macartan's College is the major Roman Catholic boys' Diocesan College in Monaghan, Ireland. It is named after Saint Macartan, follower of St. Patrick and founder and bishop of the Diocese of Clogher. The school educates Catholic boys in County Monaghan and surrounding counties. The school is...

, Monaghan
Monaghan
Monaghan is the county town of County Monaghan in Ireland. Its population at the 2006 census stood at 7,811 . The town is located on the main road, the N2 road, from Dublin north to both Derry and Letterkenny.-Toponym:...

.

Contributions to musicology

  • The Story of the Harp (1905)
  • History of Irish Music (1927)
  • The Story of the Bagpipe (1911), illustrated with engravings, a useful but controversial work

Contributions to ecclesiastical music

  • Mass in Honor of St. Carthage
  • Numerous hymns
  • His scholarly work was quintessential — resulting in the papal honors from four Popes.
  • His towering influence in spearheading the revival of Irish culture was corroborated on page 103, "The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000."
  • Chevalier Flood and his daughter Kathleen held the position of organist for 63 years at the Cathedral of St. Aidan, Enniscorthy, County Wexford.

Historical contributions

  • History of the Diocese of Ferns (1916)
  • articles of for the Journal of the Waterford
  • articles for the South East of Ireland Archaeological Society (1895-1915)
  • articles for The Cork Historical Journal
  • contributions for the prestigious publication - Dictionary of National Biography
  • contributions for the prestigious publication - Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1904-1910).

Other career activities

  • Professor at St. Wilfrid's Cotton Hall
    Cotton College
    Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school AT in Cotton near Oakamoor, North Staffordshire, England, also known as Saint Wilfrid's College. It closed in 1987 and the site is now derelict....

     in Staffordshire
    Staffordshire
    Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

  • Correspondent of Edward Elgar
    Edward Elgar
    Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

  • Correspondent of Douglas Hyde
    Douglas Hyde
    Douglas Hyde , known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn , was an Irish scholar of the Irish language who served as the first President of Ireland from 1938 to 1945...

  • Correspondent of Cardinal Newman
  • Resident of Enniscorthy
    Enniscorthy
    Enniscorthy is the second largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. The population of the town and environs is 9538. The Placenames Database of Ireland sheds no light on the origins of the town's name. It may refer either to the "Island of Corthaidh" or the "Island of Rocks". With a history going...

     for 30 years. Died in 1928, aged 71.

Publications, papers, musical compositions and honors

  • Centenary of James Clarence Mangan
    James Clarence Mangan
    James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan was an Irish poet.-Early life:Mangan was the son of a former hedge school teacher who took over a grocery business and eventually became bankrupt....

  • Centenary of Prout
  • Centenary of Michael William Balfe
    Michael William Balfe
    Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...

    , the composer
    Composer
    A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

     of the opera The Bohemian Girl
    The Bohemian Girl
    The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...

  • Centenary of William Vincent Wallace
    William Vincent Wallace
    William Vincent Wallace was an Irish composer and musician.-Early life:Wallace was born at Colbeck Street, Waterford, Ireland. Both parents were Irish, his father, of County Mayo, was a regimental bandmaster....

    , the composer of the opera Maritana
    Maritana
    Maritana is a grand opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace, with a libretto by Edward Fitzball . The opera is based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d'Ennery and Philippe François Pinel Dumanoir , which was also the source material for Jules Massenet's opéra comique Don...

  • Paper by Flood read at the Gregorianin
    Pontifical Gregorian University
    The Pontifical Gregorian University is a pontifical university located in Rome, Italy.Heir of the Roman College founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola over 460 years ago, the Gregorian University was the first university founded by the Jesuits...

     Rome
    Rome
    Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

     in 1904
  • Paper by Flood read at the International Music Conference in London in 1911
  • Paper by Flood read in Paris in 1914.
  • President of the Musical Section of the Celtic Congress in Brussels in 1910.
  • Appointed correspondence member of Societe Francaise de Musicoloque, Paris in 1922
  • Flood's magnum opus: A text book in High School for Celtic Students in Paris
  • Provided evidence at the Apostolic Process for the Beatification of Venerable Oliver Plunkett in 1907.
  • History of the Diocese of Ferns (1916) the only monograph thus far published of this diocese.
  • The History of Enniscorthy, (1898)
  • History Irish Music (1905)
  • Story of the Harp (1905)
  • Story of the Bagpipe (1911)
  • Memoirs of Vincent Wallace (1912)
  • Memoirs of Father James Dixon, (1912)
  • Selected Airs of O’carolan, (1917)
  • Early Tudor Composers, (1925) – with a preface by Sir W. Henry Hadow, Mus Director, Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University
  • John Field Inventor of the Nocturne (1920).
  • Contributed articles to The Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Contributed articles to Dictionary of National Biography
  • Contributed articles to Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (5 vols. 1904-1910)
  • Contributed articles to Archivium Hibernicum (1912-1915)
  • Contributed articles to The Anthenaeum Saturday Review,
  • Contributed articles to The Month
  • Contributed articles to Ecclesiastical Review
  • Contributed articles to Irish Theological Quarterly
  • Contributed articles to Irish Ecclesiastical Record Studies
  • Contributed articles to Ave Maria,
  • Contributed articles to The Irish Rosary
  • Contributed articles to Musical Times
  • Contributed articles to Musical Opinion
  • Contributed articles to Musical Quarterly
  • Contributed articles to Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
  • Contributed articles to Cork Archaeological Journal
  • Contributed articles to Waterford Archaeological Journal
  • Contributed articles to Musical Herald, etc.
  • Edited a new standard edition of Moore’s Irish Melodies, The Spirit of a Nation (1911).
  • Edited the music of The Armagh Hymnal in 1915.
  • Composed the Mass of Saint Aedan in B flat; Saint Aedan or Saint Mogue being the first Bishop and Patron of the Diocese of Ferns (died 631 AD)
  • Composed the Mass of Saint Carthage in A; Saint Carthage as Patron of Lismore where Doctor Flood was born
  • Composed the Mass of Saint Wilfrid in G – Saint Wilfrid
    Wilfrid
    Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...

     was the patron of Cotton Hall in Staffordshire
    Staffordshire
    Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

     where he was professor for some years.
  • Composed a Benediction Service (dedicated to Pope Leo XIII
    Pope Leo XIII
    Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

    )
  • Composed Clongowes Wood College Song (1914)
  • Composed many madrigals, part songs, hymns, piano solos, marches, organ transcriptions
  • Song compositions, worthy of note: Irishmen All
  • Song compositions, worthy of note: Our Loved Ones Far Away with words by T.D. Sullivan.
  • Hymn composition, most outstanding: Hymn to Christ King (1925) which is sung in every church in the diocese of Ferns and in many other places, even as far away as Australia. The words of this hymn were written the late Father Patrick Brennann

Papal honours

Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...

 made Flood a Knight of St. Gregory; KSG.

Saint Pius X sent Flood an auto-graphed photograph and a Silver Medal in acknowledgment of his work for Church music.

Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

 sent Flood the Papal Cross, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal is an award of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also known as the "Cross of Honour". The medal was established by Leo XIII on July 17, 1888, to commemorate his golden sacerdotal jubilee and was originally bestowed on those women and men who had aided and...

, together with the title of Chevalier in 1917.

Pope Saint Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

 gave Flood a Bronze Medal and an autographed photograph.

Memorials

  • A memorial in the form of a limestone Celtic Cross, with a Celtic Harp carved on it was raised in Enniscorthy shortly after Chevalier Flood's death. It bears the following inscription:-


ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF
CHEVALIER WILLIAM HENRY GRATTAN FLOOD, ENNISCORTHY,
IN RECOGNITION OF HIS INVALUABLE SERVICES TO IRISH MUSIC AND LITERATURE. AUGUST 6TH 1928.
”Irish orators of rival fame --
Combine to mould his memorable name; --
But music was his first love and his last --
And links in him our present with our past." --
Epitaph by Alfred Perceval Graves
Alfred Perceval Graves
Alfred Perceval Graves , was an Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter, and school inspector . His first marriage to Jane Cooper, eldest daughter of James Cooper of Cooper Hill, Co. Limerick, resulted in five children: the journalist Philip Graves, Mary, Richard, Alfred, and Susan...

.
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