Miss Mulligan’s Homemade Pie

Miss Mulligan's home-made Pie
by C Frank Horn (1885)

As I sat at my rosewood peanny one day,
Makin' chords that were solemn and grand, 
Mr. Mulligan's footman came over the way,
With a big billy doo in his hand.
As a neighbor and friend I was asked to attend,
A party at Mulligan's social and high, 
And I found by the way 'twas the very first day,
That Miss Mulligan tried to bake homemade pie.

Arah my boys but that pie was a Daisy,
Flaky and tender, Crispy and brown,
To see what was in it the people went crazy,
Nothing like it was known in the town.
Lemons and rhubarb and raisins and spices,
Icing and frosting piled up on high
Slathers of brandy and sugar so sandy,
In faith was a dandy, that home-made pie.

They stood the pie out on the table,that day, 
And it looked like a ship without sails,
While Mulligan mended a hole in the lid,
With a hammer and two or three nails
Sure it looked very nice and I asked for a slice,
For I eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry,
You may say what you plaze but I've been a daze
Since I tackled Miss Mulligan's home-made pie.

Mr Hector McGettigan asked for a slice, 
And he swallowed it down in a lump,
He he was took with the colic and cramps in a trice
And the doctor came in with a pump,
Young Woolford McGee kept gazing at me,
I could tell by his looks there was blood in his eye, 
Then he hit old McGinn and fractured his chin
With a chunk of Miss Mulligan's home-made pie

Mr. Fogarty tumbled and groaned on the floor,
With the pleurissy pains in his chest, 
Maloney cried out, "I don't want any more,"
As he tried to unbutton his vest,
John Michael Dupree kept calling to me,
"Gilhooly I'll lave you my debts if I die,"
While Gerald McCann said he pitied the man,
Who would marry that girl and her homemade pie.

A comic song written in 1880s America, collected 70 years later from the singing of a Mr Merithew ….

American songwriter C Frank Horn seems to have followed up the great success of his 1883 hit, Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake with this recipe song. The tune is the same but there are some differences including the fact that in the Pie version, like so many other comic songs drawing humour from stage Irish stereotypes, a social event ends in a fight.

A digital copy of the sheet music is held at the Library of Congress. While I can find no record of it being sung professionally in Britain, it still seems to have crossed the Atlantic somehow. A song of this title was being sung by amateurs in the UK from 1889 and in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1890s.

The song was collected in the USA in 1945 by Helen Hartness Flanders from the singing of Mr Merithew , a recording is available at archive.org.

In the 19th century Mulligan was a commonly used stage name for Irish comedic caricatures,this was especially true in America after 1873 following the success of the songs, sketches and plays associated with Edward Harrigan and David Braham and their song The Mulligan Guard (RNV7922).

The short biography of C Frank Horn below summarises information in an excellent article by Stanley A Ransom in the New York Folklore Society journal Voices:

Charles Frank Horn (1951-1928) was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His father was a teamster and he may have picked up his interest in music from a professor of music, Will Davis, that lodged in their home for a time. He was a relatively prolific composer, with over 50 pieces credited to him in the archives held by the Library of Congress. These include songs, marches, waltzes, quick steps and other instrumental pieces. His songs include a number of comic Irish pieces similar to the two discussed on this website. Almost all the music he was responsible for was published in the 1880s, and is possible that he may have moved away from music after this time. He died in July 1928.

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A000
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Image, lyrics and sheet music: Library of Congress
• The Mulligan Guard in Fresno Ballad Index
• Ransom, S.A. 2007, “MISS FOGARTY’S CHRISTMAS CAKE”, Voices, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 16-20.

Last Updated on December 13, 2021 by John Baxter | Published: December 11, 2021