{"id":29153,"date":"2026-01-28T10:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=29153"},"modified":"2026-01-28T10:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:48:20","slug":"cassidy-private-michael-cassidy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/cassidy-private-michael-cassidy\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassidy – Private Michael Cassidy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Private Michael Cassidy, VC<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1915<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Jack Norworth and RP Weston<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN25547<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Jack Norworth<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Kane, Alice ; N. Ireland : Belfast \/ Canada : Ontario : Toronto; no date<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Oh! Private Michael Cassidy, bedad! and that's the bhoy,
Who's known to all the Irish Guards as Kitchener's pride and joy
While on the march you'll hear him shout, \"Who's going to win the war?\"
And this is what the khaki lads all answer with a roar:

Cassidy! Private Michael Cassidy! 
He is of Irish nationality 
He's the boy of wonderful audacity
Private Michael Cassidy VC<\/em>

Who is it should be decorated like a Christmas tree 
With gold and silver medals for his deeds of bravery?
Who is it wins the VC over fifty times a day
But never has the luck to make the general look his way 

Who was it had a dozen Germans sticking all secure
Yes sticking on his bayonet as though it were a skewer 
Who was it when they doubted of the number he had slain
Went out and dug the Germans up and killed them all again

Extra verses<\/strong>
Who was it when he found his boots were leaking t\u2018other day
Went out to get a new pair from a German straight away?
Who was it came back late and said, \"I must apologise,
I had to kill nineteen of them before I got my size\u201d?
 .
Who was it went to Kitchener and said, \u201cMy lord, I hear
We\u2019re short of Ammunition, and I\u2018ve struck a big idea.
On every shell we fire at them let\u2019s put a lump of chain
Then when we've killed the dirty dogs we'll pull it back again\u201d?
 
Who was it in the charge would give the Huns what they deserve,
But seemed to use his bayonet with a funny kind of curve,
An though upon their waistcoat: he was carrying some design,
 
The little children idolise him down in Donegal,
And with a piece of chalk chalk they draw his photo on the wall.
And in the little village school upon the Sabbath day
When teacher says, \"Who made you children?\" They all stand and say,
 
When Cassidy was training, sure, the sergeant of his lot
Kept telling them to \u2018double,\u2019 which is marching at the trot.
A Scotchman said, \u201c Dam Doublin\u2019!\" as he stopped and puffed and blew,
But who was it that shouted, \u201cAnd to hell with Glasgow too\"?
 
You\u2019ve heard of how the Germans in Berlin and ev\u2019rywhere
Shout out \"Gott Strafe England,\" it\u2019s a saying like \"There's \u2018air!\"
They strafe Italy and France, they strafe all the host,
But who is it the Baby-killers keep on strafing most?
 
Who was it met a dainty little Belgian refugee,
And right behind the firing line would sit her on his knee?
Who was it when she doubted him got on his knees and swore
He'd love her for \"Three years or the duration of the war\"?
 
You've heard enough of Private Michael Cassidy by now
To know that he's a soldier 'and a man, but anyhow,
He's out there in the trenches, and his weary heart to cheer,
I want you all to shout this loud enough for him to hear:
 <\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
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A song written early in the war when jingoistic songs were still relatively popular. It was written and composed by RP Weston<\/a> and American singer-songwriter Jack Norworth. It was initially performed by Norworth himself, in a revue at the Garrick Theatre called: Looking Around<\/em>. He improvised verses around an unchanging chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song appeared on record several times, sung by Reg Low, Stanley Kirby, Jack Norworth, Harry Fay and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private<\/span> Michael Cassidy <\/em>may well have been based on the fictional Sergeant<\/span> Michael Cassidy <\/em>\u00a0who featured in a series of short stories published in the Daily Mail <\/em>in the early months of the war. They were later  were collected in a best selling book. They were written by “Sapper”, the pen name of HC McNeile, who would later go on to write the Bulldog Drummond stories. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
It was widely sung in pantomime in the 1915\/16 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norworth’s recording can be heard in the Discography of Historical American Recordings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Harry Fay’s 1915 recording:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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