Agricultural Irish Girl, The

AKA Mary Ann Malone
First Published 1885
Writer/composer J.F. Mitchell Roud RN37287

Music Hall Performers Walter Munroe
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Alice Kane recalled singing this song as a child in Ulster in the early 20th century
Modern performances
Val Doonican, Tommy Truesdale		 

If all the girls that's in the town were bundled up together,
The girl I Love would beat them all in every kind of weather;
The rain can't wash the powder off, because she because she does not wear it,
Her face and figure is all her own, that's true, for I declare It.


For she's a great big, stout lump of an agricultural Irish girl,
She never paints nor powders, for her figure is all her own,
She can strike that hard you'd think you were hit by the kick of a mule,
The fun of the house of Irish love is Mary Ann Malone.

She has no grand education, for she's only passed her letters
But for acting like a lady, I would like to see her betters,
She does not read Ouida's work, or read Bow Bells fashion pages,
She does not wear those things behind, the ladies called birdcages


She was only seventeen last grass, and still improving greatly,
I wonder what she will be like when her bones have set completely 
You'd think your hand was in a vice, the minute that she shakes it;
And if there's any cake around its Mary Ann who takes it

An Irish comic song still performed by Irish singers in the second half of the 20th century. It was originally written by JF Mitchell, and in Britain and Ireland was sung in the halls by the comic Walter Munroe. The song was also very popular in the United States and is not completely clear whether or not it was written there. Sheet music was published in both America and England in 1885.

Newspaper reports indicate that Walter Munroe performed the song in the London Halls as early as January 1884:

 All Irish comedian, Mr Walter Munroe, introduced a new song containing the sound advice to the sons of “Ould Ireland” to “remember all her troubles in the year gone by.” “Mary Ann Malone,” a more comic effusion, and some clever dancing added much to Mr Munroe’s success. 

Review of performance at The Middlesex, The Era, Jan 8 1884

Early in 1885 this review of his performance at The Sun Music Hall appeared:

Jan. 31, 1885; The Era

I have been unable to uncover much about the songwriter J.F. Mitchell – the J stands for John, he died in 1888 and in American sheet music he was billed as “the Popular Irish Balladist”. Notices in The Era indicate that in the late 1870s he was regularly writing songs for British and Irish Music Hall performers including Sam Torr, Patrick Feeney and Munroe. Between the late 1870s and mid 1880s most of his songs seem to have been published in London, but towards the end of his life many of his songs were also published in America. It is possible that he emigrated to America, but also possible that later in his life he developed better links with American publishers.

Tommy Truesdale sings it:

Sources: