Frank McCollum

Frank McCollum was a fiddler and composer from Ballycastle, Co. Antrim.

His best known composition is The Home Ruler, a hornpipe he composed in the 1960's. This tune is now so common in the tradition, with dozens of recordings, it is easy to understand why many people mistakenly presume it is an ancient tune.

McCollum also composed The Chapel Bell and The Hangman's Noose but these are nowhere near as popular as The Home Ruler.

Information about McCollum is hard to come by, we have no photos or year of birth or death. If anyone can supply either we'd be grateful.

The following information comes courtesy of Fintan Vallely's Companion to Irish Traditional Music:

"McCollum, Frank. Fiddler, song and music collector, composer. One-time 'master' of the Ballycastle, Co. Antrim Orange Lodge. His best-known and most widely recorded piece is 'The Home Ruler' hornpipe, usually presumed to have been named in honour of James Brown Armour (a nineteenth-century Antrim Home Rule champion), but in fact written for his wife."

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