[1]: xxiii  As a well-known lecturer who communicated his enthusiasm and knowledge of his special hobbies to other people, Henry contributed many articles on such matters to the local papers.

[5]: 6  When Lloyd George instituted the Old Age Pensions Act 1908, Henry was appointed to administer it in his area, while still carrying out his duties for the Inland Revenue.

To overcome the natural reticence of country people in those remote areas, Henry often took his fiddle and tin whistle with him, played a tune and then asked if anyone in the household knew any of the old songs.

"[1]: xxv The first song in the series, "The Flower of Sweet Dunmull" (Henry number H1)[1]: 191  was printed on 17 November 1923,[1]: 522  and the last one, "The Lass of Mohee" (H836),[1]: 372  on 9 December 1939.

[1]: 167  During his long absence, the Songs of the People series was looked after by other editors[note 1] who published just over 200 articles altogether (numbered 247-463), which therefore do not appear in Henry's scrapbooks.

This book includes all the songs Henry had published in the Northern Constitution from 17 November 1923 to 28 July 1928 (H1 to H246), and from 28 October 1932 to 9 December 1939 (H464 to H836),[1]: 522–531  with all the songs' tunes transcribed from tonic sol-fa to standard staff notation,[1]: xxxii–xxxvi  plus extensive appendices, indexes and reference aids developed by the book's editors: Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann and John Moulden.

Andy Irvine, who first consulted the Dublin set in the mid-1960s,[12]: 44  has interpreted an extensive selection of its songs since the early 1970s[13] as a solo artist and with Planxty, Paul Brady, Patrick Street, and Mozaik.

In addition to his collection of songs, Henry left behind a large aggregate of 11,000 items, comprising photographs[14] and documents,[15] donated to the Coleraine Museum by his grandson, Gordon Craig, on 25 August 2011.