{"id":15102,"date":"2022-03-08T14:13:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=15102"},"modified":"2022-03-08T14:43:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:43:56","slug":"pat-of-mullingar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/pat-of-mullingar\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat of Mullingar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
First Published<\/td>c1860<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Harry Sydney<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN3067<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Sam Collins, Harry Sydney<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Modern performances of the Rebel song:
The Irish Rovers, The Wolfe Tones<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Henry de Marsan Singers Journal No 28 p190 (1868) \n\nThey may talk of Flying Childers,\nAnd the speed of Harkaway,\nTill the fancy it bewilders,\nAs you list to what they say;\nBut for real bone and beauty\nThough, to travel near and far,\nThe fattest mare you'll find, belongs\nTo Pat of Mullingar.\n\nShe can trot along, jog along,\nDrag a jaunting-car;\nNo day's too long, when set along\nWith Pat of Mullingar.<\/em>\n\nShe was bred in Connemara,\nAnd brought up at Castlemaine;\nShe won cups at the Currah,\nThe finest baste on all the plain!\nAll countries And conveyances\nShe has been buckled to;\nShe lost an eye at Limerick,\nAnd an ear at Waterloo.\n\nIf a friend you wish to find, sir,\nI'll go wherever you want;\nI'll drive you out of your mind, sir,\nOr a little way beyont,\nLike an arrow through the air,\nIf you'll step upon the car,\nYou'll ride behind the little mare\nOf Pat of Mullingar.\n\nTo Dallymount or Kingston,\nIf the place you wish to see,\nI'll drive you to the Strawberry-beds.\nIt's all the same to me;\nTo Donnybrook, whose ancient fair\nIs famed for love And war;\nOr if you have the time to spare,\nWe'll go to Mullingar. \n\nWhen on the road we're going,\nThe other carmen try\n(Without the darling knowing),\nTo pass her on the sly;\nHer one ear points up to the sky.\nShe tucks her haunches in;\nThen shows the lads how she can fly,\nAs I sit still and grin!\n\nThen, should yez want a car, sirs,\nI hope you'll not forget\nPoor Pat of Mullingar, sirs,\nAnd his darlin' little pet;\nShe's as gentle as the dove, sirs,\nHer speed you can't deny;\nAnd there's no blind side about her,\nThough she only has one eye.  <\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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An Irish comic song from 1860, written and performed by Harry Sydney, also performed by  Sam Collins<\/a>. The original version was usually sung in the character of an Irish carman describing the excellent qualities of his horse.  Comic play is made of comparisons with great racehorses of the past (Flying Childers and Harkaway) and the horse’s involvement in great historical events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was regularly sung by amateur singers in England in the late 19th century and widely reprinted in slightly varying versions in cheap 19th-century street literature  in Ireland, England and America.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Some late 20th century sources suggest that it was a Harry Clifton <\/a>song, but I think this is dubious \u2013 it doesn’t seem to been mentioned as such in any 19th-century publications . The earliest reference to the song that I can find in 19th-century newspapers and periodicals is from 1860:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Apr. 15, 1860, The Era<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The song has regularly appeared in several 20th-century collections of Irish traditional song, including the 1939 Irish Street Ballads <\/em>by  Colm O Lochlain, who  describes it as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A favourite tune with ballad singers; and in the North is best known as The South Down Militia: <\/p>
You may talk about yer Queens Guards, Scots Greys and a’
You may rave about here Kilties and yer bonny Forty Twa 
And every other regiment under the Queens command 
But the South Down militia is the terror of the land<\/p>
A version of this latter with many local and topical verses was popular in Irish Volunteers circles in 1913\/16<\/p>
<\/p>Irish Street Ballads<\/em>, Colm O Lochlain,  p227<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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The song is now best known as a Rebel Song,  a form written some time in the late 20th century and recorded by the Irish Rovers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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