| AKA | Paddy’s Wedding Tid Re I; or The marriage of Miss Kitty O’Donovan to Mr Paddy Rafferty |
| First Published | 1796 |
| Writer/composer | Charles Dibdin | Roud | RN17123 |
| Music Hall Performers | Sam Collins |
| Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Kneeland, James H; USA : Maine; 1941 |
THE IRISH WEDDING. Sure, won't you hear What roaring cheer Was spread at Paddy's wedding, O! And how so gay They spent the day, From the churching to the bedding, O ! First, book in hand, came Father Quipes, With the bride's dadda, the bailey, O! While all the way to church the pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O! Then there was Mat, And sturdy Pat, And merry Morgan Murphy, O! And Murdock Mags, And Tirlogh Skaggs, Macloclan, and Dick Durfey, O! And then the girls, dress'd out in wipes, Led on by Tad O'Reilly, O! All jigging, as the merry pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O! When Pat was ask'd Would his love last, The chancel echoed wid laughter, O! "Arrah, fait!" cried Pat, "You may say dat, To the end of the world and after, O!" Then tenderly her hand he gripes, And kisses her genteelly, O! While all in tune the merry pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O! Now a roaring set At dinner are met, So frolicksome and so frisky, O! Poratoes galore, A skirraig or more, And a flowing madder of whisky, O! To the bride's dear health round went the swipes, That her joys might be nightly and daily, O! And still, as they guttled, the merry pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O! And then, at night, O what delight To see them all footing and prancing, O! An opera or ball Were nothing at all, Compar'd to the style of their dancing, O! And then to see old father Quipes Beat time with his sheialy, O! While the chanter wid his merry pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O! And now the knot So tipsy are got They'll all go to sleep without rocking, O! So the bridemaids fair Now gravely prepare For throwing of the stocking, O! And round, to be sure, didn't go the swipes At the bride's expense so freely, O! While to wish them good night the merry pipes Struck up a lilt so gayly, O!
A song by Charles Dibdin, from his dramatic piece The General Election which premiered in 1796 when he opened his Sans Souci Theatre on Leicester Place close to Leicester Square, London. Dibdin’s songs were still popular in the early music halls of the 1840s to 1860s when this song was particularly associated with the singing of Sam Collins, who made a speciality of singing comic Irish songs. The words given above are those published in The selected songs of Charles Dibdin, they are almost identical to those published in Diprose’s Comic and Sentimental Music Hall Song Book, which doesn’t credit the song to Dibdin describing it only as “sung by Sam Collins.”
Collins’ obituary in The Era described the song as his first great hit:
The song appears many times in cheap 19th-century street literature in the UK Ireland in America, only rarely credited to Dibdin, and often referred to as Paddy’s Wedding.
Sources:
- VWML entry
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: The selected songs of Charles Dibdin (1845), p438
- Sheet Music of an early US version: Isaiah Thomas broadside ballads project
- The Oxford Companion to Popular Music
- Mudcat thread
Last Updated on April 12, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: March 25, 2022
