Annotation:Kitty Mooney
X:1 T:Kitty Mooney M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig/Air S:John Rook music manuscript collection (Waverton, Cumbria, 1840, p. 223) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G f|g2G G2G|G2G G2A|B2A B2d|e3 def| g2G G2G|G2G G2A|B2A G2 F|(E3E2):| d|e2d e2f|g2a g2f|e2d e2f|g3 g2a| bag agf|gfe def|gfe d2 B|G3 G2:|]
KITTY MOONEY. AKA - "Katty Mooney." AKA and see "Caty O'Money," "Jig (56)," "Moll Rooney's Pig." Irish, Jig or Air (6/8 time). F Major (Kerr): G Major (Rook). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody was entered into the 1840 music manuscript collection of multi-instrumentalist John Rook of Waverton, near Wigton, Cumbria, and, as an untitled jig, in Book 3 of the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894).
According to Samuel Lover (1797-1868) in his collection 'Lyrics of Ireland' (1858), the music of this song was composed by "Mr. Blewitt", who we can assume is Jonathan Blewitt (1782-1853), composer of "Blewitt's Jig" to which Thomas Hudson wrote the song "Barney Brallagan's Courtship" to it. Lover writes:
This belongs to a class of songs alluded to in the Preface, professing to be Irish on the strength of a pig being introduced into the 'dramatis persona'. It is not racy of the soil: it was not written by an Irishman; the word spooney is sufficient proof of that. But, nevertheless, there is something comical in the song; and the idea of the pig sitting between the false pair, a sort of third party in the conspiracy, however absurd, is provocative of merriment. The music was composed by the late Mr. Blewitt — and a capital air it is. Mr. Blewitt was an Englishman, but having lived in Dublin some years, his quick ear caught up some of the peculiarities of the Irish lilt, which he has occasionally imitated with success. (p.111)
Sheet music of the song states that the song was "written by M. Bryant; the music composed by J. Blewitt"[1].
The lyrics of the song as printed by Lover are:
KATTY MOONEY
I courted Katty Mooney, dear,
A girl so neat and cosey;
Her eyes they were so bright and clear,
Her lips were ripe and rosy.
I bought a pig to live with us,
I got a stick to mind it;
'Twas a beauty too, hut, like the rest,
It carried its tail behind it.
Och, hubbaboo, och phillaloo,
Wasn’t I a spooney,
Ochone, ochone, to grunt and groan,
And all for Katty Mooney!
Och, we were glad when we made one,
In love we made a dozen;
But very soon she brought to town
Her thirty-second cousin :
I made him eat, I made him drink;
With compliments he lined me,
But the reason why I ne’er could think,
Till he stayed one day behind me.
Och, hubbaboo, &c.
I don’t know why that I went hack
I wisht I hadn’t seen thim,
For there they were giving smack for smack,
And the pig was sitting between thim;
He ran away, och hubbaboo!
May the devil catch and hind him,
And my wife may go to the devil too,
If they leave the pig behind thim.
Och, hubbaboo, &c.(p.111)
