Annotation:Oh Woman of the House Isn't that Neat?
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OH WOMAN OF THE HOUSE, ISN'T THAT NEAT? Irish, March (6/8 time). F Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Petrie (1855) gives two variants of the tune, with the second as "O woman of the house is not that pleasant?" and identifies it is "a white-boy march." The Cavan Observer of August 23rd, 1862, explained:
The White-Boys were created as a result of agrarian unrest. The first recorded general uprising of the peasants was in 1761 and known as the White-boy conspiracy. It first appeared in Limerick then spread through Munster, Connacht and Leinster Provinces.
The White-Boy and agrarian unrest was directly caused by grievances regarding enclosure of common acreage, forced labor, unemployment, rack rents and the tithes(Catholics had to pay a tithe to the Church of Ireland, as well as what they paid to their own Church) - grievances for which they had no redress in courts of law. Because Father Nicholas Sheehy had expressed sympathy for the peasants who were being evicted, he was arrested on trumped up charges and then hung, drawn and quartered in Clonmel' in 1766. He is buried in Shandraghan and his through his death be became the patron saint of later generations of White-boys. Due to fear of the ascendancy a bill in 1762 to allow Catholics to take mortgages against their land was defeated and instead the leaders of militant protestant ascdendancy charged the White-boys with a popish rebellion instigated by the French.
If reform of the tithe and land system been allowed at this time, Irish history would be been vastly altered. Instead in 1766 the first act against White-boys was passed.
They were called White-boys because they wore white shirts on the outside of their clothes as a disguise. Their tactics were brutal but rarely was murder committed. The White-boys were the first Tenant's Protection Society and and Agricultural Laborers Union, they did establish a code of agrarian solidarity which was generally observed.
The White-boys never advanced far beyond a self contained secret organization. But between 1761 to 1778 the landlords and the authorities waged war on the White-boys. Suspects were hung. Even with much persecution the groups would spring up in another area.
Groups in the Province of Ulster also were started by Protestant peasantry, but they were met with less harshly than the White-boys. They were the Oakboys in Monaghan, which spread into Tyrone and Armagh, they were revolting against forced labor for the repair and upkeep of the roads. Catholics and Protestants joined together but were defeated in Armagh during a bloody battle.
Source for notated version: "From T. Mc M. & E. Curry" [Petrie]
Printed sources: Stanford (Complete Collection of Petrie's Irish Music), 1905; No. 994, p. 254.
Recorded sources: