"Lady Athenry", (in Gaelic "Banthiarna Atha an Riogh") is an Irish air or planxty in 6/8 time and G Major was composed by Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). Collector George Petrie thought this composition, of all of Carolan's work, showed the most influence of Corelli and the Italian composers. O'Sullivan (1958) determined that the subject of the air is Lady Mary Nugent (1694-1725), eldest daughter of Thomas, 4th Earl of Westmeath, who married Francis Bermingham, 21st Baron of Athenry, in September, 1716. The Bermingham's were descended from a knight commander in Strongbow's Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170. Shortly after the death of his father in 1692 Francis Bermingham became Protestant, doubtless for the purpose of maintaining his estates, and took a seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1713. He died in 1749, succeeded by his son Thomas who died without issue in 1799. During Carolan's time Lord Athenry lived at Athenry Castle at Bermingham Demesne, near Tuam, County Galway. It was printed in O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), O'Sullivan 's Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper (1958) and Ossian's The Complete Works of O'Carolan (1989). It was recorded by Derek Bell on his Carolan's Receipt album.