Annotation:Paddy Mouse (The)

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PADDY MOUSE, THE. Irish, Air (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A broadside ballad printed around the mid-19th century. The song, according to Darley & McCall, referred to the Repeal Agitation, the name of the movement headed by Daniel O'Connell to dissolve the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland. The movement seriously frightened the Britihs government, and O'Connell was tried for conspiracy after large demonstrations took place. His conviction was overturned by the House of Lords. The song began:

Once in old Ireland there started a mouse,
They sent him to London to Parliament House,
The nobles all, both great and small, they wondered for to see,
A mouse so small from Ireland seeking for liberty.
There was a cat withing that house, an' to the mouse did say,
'I doubt year are a stranger; I believe you've agon' asthray.
'I think you are a Paddy mouse, an' when did you come o'er?'
'This mornin', sir,' replied the mouse, 'I landed on your shore.
'An' if I am a Paddy mouse,' the mouse to him did say,
'I doubt you are a buckish cat, an' I'm not goin' asthray.
'For I'm a son to Graunia, that sore laments for grief,
'An' she sent me to his Majesty, to grant her some relief.

Source for notated version: the whistling of D.J. O'Donoghue (Ireland) [Darley & McCall].

Printed sources: Darley & McCall (The Feis Ceóil Collection of Irish Airs), 1914; No. 32, p. 13.

Recorded sources:




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