Delaney’s Chicken

AKA Cockey Doodle Doo
First Published 1896
Writer/composer Sweeney/Barrett Roud RN24602

Music Hall Performers Lester Barrett
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Tully, Annie E.; Ireland : Co. Mayo : c1937
Murphy, Patrick; Ireland : Co. Waterford c1937
Heekin, Patrick; Ireland : Co. Donegal; 1968
Kelleher, Mikey; Ireland / England : London 1977
Bate, Charlie; England : Cornwall 1950s/60s		 

Delaney from the market bought a fowl a month ago
If he meets the man who sold it he will kill him with a blow
He said it was a chicken of a plump and tender breed
But of a more deceitful bird you'll never hear or read.
When they settled down to pluck it all their efforts were in vain
But hands were torn and blistered and their muscles had a strain
So dressed in all its feathers then they put it in the stew
If you want to make Delaney wild, shout "Cock-a-doodle-do.

That bird must have crowed when they built the tower of Babel
Was fed by Cain and Abel, and lived in Noah's stable
All the shots that were fired, on the field of Waterloo
Couldn't penetrate, or dislocate, that elongated, armour-plated,
Double-breasted, iron chested, Cock-a-doodle-do.

Delaney bought that chicken just to give us all a spread
On Sunday, when the guests arrived, he went clean off his head
In the yard were picks and shovels that were twisted up like tin
That he tried to carve the chicken with, but couldn't break the skin
We borrowed Daly's rammer, with which he rams the stones
And thought one gentle blow would break the tender chicken's bones
At the first blow it rebounded like an India-rubber ball
And knocked ten yards of coping off Mulhanny's garden wall.

Mick Dunn, the ex-dragoon, then tried to excavate the thing
But the sword he carved the Russians with bent like a yard of string
Tim Burke, the navvy miner, through the young bird showed daylight
By blowing up himself and it with a pound of dynamite
To scrape the walls of chicken wasn't very easy work
It puzzled us to find out which was chicken, which was Burke
I found a leg of bird, and with a friendly blacksmith's aid
A pair of everlasting heels upon my boots I've made.

A song from the late 1890s, which has passed into Irish traditional music and is still widely sung today.

It was sung in the halls by Lester Barrett and written by Barrett and P Sweeney. It was first published in 1896, with a first recorded performance in the same year at a summer concert at The Palace, Douglas, Isle of Man:

Aug. 29, 1896;  The Era 

Contemporary reports suggested very quickly became extremely popular song and quickly entered the repertoire of amateur singers – there are many reports of it being sung by amateur’s in the late 1890s, though this may also be a result of it appearing in a popular annual collection of songs: Francis and Day’s 18th Comic Annual (1898)

Lester Barrett (1855-1924) was a successful Music Hall performer, often described as a Lancashire comedian, who sang a number of songs which mocked the Irish, though his performances don’t seem to have been limited to these songs . His mother and father were emigrants from Ireland and he was born in the Lancashire coastal town of Southport. In the 1880s and 1890s he was a star performer in Music Hall summer shows on the Isle of Man, a popular holiday destination. He was the brother of Leslie Stuart, a composer who also specialised in comic songs. According to Michael Kilgariff he joined the staff of the sheet music publishers Francis and Day in 1899.

Kathryn Nea sings it – for more by Kathyrn check out her SoundCloud page:

Sources: