{"id":6172,"date":"2020-10-28T19:07:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T19:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=6172"},"modified":"2025-07-17T10:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T10:03:19","slug":"how-paddy-stole-the-rope","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/how-paddy-stole-the-rope\/","title":{"rendered":"How Paddy stole the rope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>When Paddy stole the rope
Paddy stole the rope<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>c1885<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Fred Albert \/ Frank W Egerton<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN2037<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Pat Feeney<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Mannering, Fred 1942 England : Kent
Cornealy, Tom 1950 Canada : Nova Scotia
Molloy, J. 1950-1951 Canada : Newfoundland
Knight, Harry 1952 England : Sussex
Scarce, Bob 1953 England : Suffolk
Tunney, Paddy 1976 N. Ireland
List, Billy 1977 England : Suffolk
Grant, Jimmy 1988 Ireland : Co. Donegal
Modern performances<\/strong>
Tim Hart\/Maddy Prior<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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There was once two Irish labouring men, to England they came over;\nThey tramped about in search of work\nFrom Liverpool to Dover.\nSays Pat to Mick, 'I'm tired of this;\nWe're both left in the lurch;\nAnd if we don't get work, begad,\nI'll go and rob a church.'\n\n'What, rob a church?...' says Mick to Pat;\n'How dare you be so vile\nThere's something sure to happen\nAs you're treading down the aisle.\nBut if you go I go with you;\nWe'll get out safe, I hope;'\nSo, if you'll listen, I'll tell you here\nHow Paddy stole the rope.\n\nWell off they went with theft intent,\nThe place they wanted finding;\nThey broke into a country church\nWhich nobody was minding.\nThey scraped together all they could\nAnd then prepared to slope,\nWhen Paddy cries out, 'Hold on, Mick,\nWhat shall we do for rope?\n\nWe've got no bag to hold the swag,\nAnd e'er we get outside,\nWith something stout and strong, my lad,\nThe bundle must be tied.'\nJust then he spies the old church bell,\nAnd quick as an antelope,\nHe scrambled up the belfry high\nTo try and steal the rope.\n\nNow when Paddy up the belfry got,\n'Ah-hah, begad, but stop;\nTo get a piece that's long enough,\nI must climb to the top.'\nSo, like a sailor, up he went,\nAnd near the top, says he,\n'I think the piece that's underneath's\nQuite long enough will be.'\n\nSo, holding by one arm and leg,\nHe drew his clasp knife out,\nAnd right above his big fat head\nHe cut the rope so stout.\nHe quite forgot it held him up,\nAnd, by the Holy Pope,\nDown to the bottom of the church,\nFell Paddy and the rope.\n\n'Come out of that,' says Mick to Pat,\nAs he on the floor lay groaning,\n'If that's the way you cut a rope,\nNo wonder now you're moaning.\nI'll show you how to cut a rope,\nSo just lend me the knife.'\n'Be very careful,,' cries out Pat,\n'Or else youll lose your life.'\n\nHe clambered up the other rope,\nAnd, like an artful thief,\nInstead of cutting it above,\nHe cut it underneath.\nThe piece fell down and left poor Mick\nAlone up there to cope;\nSays he, 'Bad luck it was the day,\nWhen we came stealing rope.'\n\nNow with Paddy groaning on the floor\nAnd Mick hung up on high,\nSays Pat, 'Come down.' 'I can't,' cried Mick,\n'For if I do, I die.'\nThe noise soon brought the beadle round,\nThe sexton and the police,\nAnd although they set poor Micky free,\nThey gave them no release.\n\nThey marched them to the county jail\nWhere their conduct now they rue,\nAnd if they'd got no work before,\nThey've plenty now to do;\nAnd for their ingenuity\nThey now have larger scope\nThan when they broke into church\nTo try and steal a rope.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song collected from source singers in England, Ireland and Canada in the second half of the 20th century. It appears in a number of broadsides and songsters published on both sides of the Atlantic.Another example of a song which draws on national and\/or racial stereotypes for comedic effect, like so many of these it seems to have become popular amongst the people it was targeted at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a hit in the Halls for Pat Feeney, with words by Fred Albert (brief biography below) and music by Frank Egerton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pat Feeney (1850-89)<\/strong>  had a repertoire which favoured humorous songs about the Irish. He was big star but died relatively early. He had been too unwell to perform for some time and died in poverty. His friends in the Halls organised a number of testimonials to raise money for his dependents. The Belfast Weekly Telegraph said this of Feeney:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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It is a melancholy reflection that many public singers, especially music hall artistes, who have for years occupied prominent positions, and have commanded popular applaud with commensurate salaries, should die in absolute poverty. Pat Feeney, who was well known in Belfast, illustrated the statement\u2026 In his time he had occupied a great position on the music hall stage and had commanded the salary of an ambassador, and had driven as smart a turnout as was to be met with on the road. He was the best singer of Irish songs, comic and patriotic, the Music Halls knew. But of late Pat Feeney had fallen on evil times. A painful illness had overtaken him. He was unable to sing, and had saved no money. Recently a fund was started for his maintenance, and the amount realised\u2014principally provided by professionals\u2014has enabled him at least to die in comfort. Pat was the most enthusiastic of Home Rulers. In the days when Home Rule found more brickbats than sympathy in the Music Halls Pat used never to miss an opportunity of advocating the claims of his race. It was his boast that he was largely responsible for the changed feeling that has come in latter days. Strangely enough, Pat Feeney, though of Irish parents, was not an Irishman born. Like so many of the stars of the Music Halls, he hailed from Birmingham. And like most of the Birmingham Irishmen, he was more Irish than the Irish themselves. \u2026 He was a man of a ready natural wit, and a pleasant, sympathetic voice. His songs had the merit of being set to catchy melodies, and many of them will survive their singer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Fred Albert (1845-86) <\/strong>was both a songwriter and performer. He seems to be one of the few music hall stars to have come from a better off, middle-class background \u2013 he was educated at the Birkbeck School, and worked in an office in the City of London for a while. He was known for his fast singing and fast writing \u2013 he turned out a large number of songs many of which were never published, perhaps because they were very topical and had a short shelf life. His successes included  The Mad Butcher <\/em>\u2013 a big hit for Henri Clarke and Perverted Proverbs<\/em>. One of his topical songs which actually was published was Brave Captain Webb!<\/em> written in 1875 to celebrate the first person to swim across the English Channel .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The topicality of many of his songs means that very few were remembered in the 20th century \u2013 it seems that the only song of his which passed into traditional singing was How Paddy stole the rope<\/a><\/em>, but I am still looking \u2026 The spreadsheet below represents my most complete list of his songs that were published as sheet music with cross-references to the Roud Indexes where they exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
fred-albert-1<\/a>DOWNLOAD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Tim Hart and Maddy Prior sing Paddy Stole the rope<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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