Stone outside Dan Murphy’s door, The

From Wehrman's Universal Songster Volume 34 (1892):

The Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door.
Copyright, 1891, by Frank Harding.
Written and Composed by J. P. Dane.

There's a sweet garden spot in our memory
It's the place we were born in and reared
It's long years ago since we left it
But return there we will if we're spared
Our friends and companions of childhood
Would assemble each night near a score
Round Dan Murphy's shop, and how often we sat
On the stone outside Dan Murphy's door

Those days in our hearts we will cherish
Contented although we were poor
And the songs that were sung
In the days we were young
On the stone outside Dan Murphy's door

When our day's work was over we'd meet there
In the winter or spring just the same
Then the boys and the girls all together
Would join in some innocent game
Dan Murphy would take down his fiddle
While his daughter looked after the store
The music did ring and sweet songs we would sing
On the stone outside Dan Murphy's door

Back again will our thoughts often wander
To the scenes of our childhood's home
The friends and companions we left there
It was poverty caused us to roam
Since then in this life we have prospered
But still in our hearts we feel sore
For memory will fly to those days long gone by
And the stone outside Dan Murphy's door

A sentimental song from the late 19th-century remembered by multiple traditional singers in Ireland and its diaspora. I’m suggesting that the usual attribution may be incorrect…

The original song is usually credited to Johnny Patterson, a famous Irish clown and piper, successful on both sides of the Atlantic. The attribution to Patterson has been repeated many times over the years, but the ready availability of thousands of 19th-century newspapers and periodicals in easily searchable electronic form seems to undermine the claim. I have made extensive searches of 19th-century publications from Ireland, Britain and the USA find no evidence to support the attribution to Patterson – do let me know if you can find any!

All the contemporary 19th century sources that I can find suggest that the song was first written, composed and sung by John P Dane. Here are two examples of several dozen, including the earliest reference I can find to the song, in October 1888:

A few month’s later:

Patterson did not copyright his songs, so it is possible that he wrote it and Dane claimed it as his own. However, my feeling is that unless we can find some 19th-century sources that suggest that Patterson wrote the song, it’s safer to attribute it to Dane who built a career of over 20 years singing this ballad – as late as 1896 he was advertised in Belfast as the original singer of The stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.

The song was widely published in broadsides and cheap songbooks on both sides of the Atlantic, usually uncredited but occasionally attribute to Dane. Suggestions that it was one of Johnny Patterson’s songs seem to start in the mid-20th century.

The following biography of Dane was cobbled together from references in 19th-century newspapers and periodicals, mostly The Era :

John P Dane was most often described as a “character dialect comedian” or “comedian and dancer”. He seems to have begun his career with appearances in Liverpool and north-west England in 1888. His rise from the “provinces” to the capital was rapid, and he was boasting an “instantaneous success in London” in May 1889. He appeared as Widow Twankey in The Prince’s pantomime (Blackburn) in 1889/90, which later toured. He appeared in the “highly successful and refined comic operetta” Margery later that year.. Dane toured widely in Ireland and Britain in the 1890s and early 1900s. References to him seemed to cease in around 1907.

The Dubliners sing it:

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics: Wehrman’s Universal Songster No 34 (c1892), from Traditional Music Library
• Sheet Music: Irish-folk-songs.com
• One of many Mudcat threads, follow the links for the others.
• Harry Brashaw: Johnny Patterson the Rambler from Clare Clare County Library

Last Updated on June 17, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: February 14, 2022