“Daniel O'Connell (I)”
Description
Singer overhears an old woman and a tinker; he says Daniel O'Connell is now making children in Dublin by steam; those made the old way are too few. She berates O'Connell for removing the people's best diversion; he salutes her
Long description
Singer overhears an old woman and a tinker talking; he says Daniel O'Connell is now making children in Dublin by steam, because those made the old way are too small and too few. She berates O'Connell for removing the people's best diversion; he salutes her, saying that if all women in Ireland were as plucky as she, the nation would have babies aplenty (for the Queen's army)
Notes
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) [was] leader of Catholic Association whose pressure led to the Catholic Emancipation Act, 1829.
"Tinker," in this context, means one of the travelling people, rather than a worker in tin. Fowke notes drily that this aspect of O'Connell's long career "seems to have been overlooked by his biographers." - PJS
I wonder if this might not be confused with the life of another Irish hero, Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), whose career was blighted by sex scandals. Given that the only surviving version of this song seems to be O. J. Abbott's, such a thing is possible.
There is severe irony in O'Connell urging that Ireland breed up more people; his last major speech, in 1847, was on the disaster of the potato famine -- which of course was so deadly only because Ireland had more people than it could reasonably support.
There is another Canadian Daniel O'Connell song, a fragment collected by Creighton. It perhaps reveals how many Irish left Ireland after the famines that both songs are found only outside Ireland. - RBW
Historical references
- 1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
Cross references
- cf. "Fergus O'Connor and Independence" (subject: Daniel O'Connell and the Tithe War)
- cf. "Daniel O'Connell (II)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "By Memory Inspired" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Charlie Jack's Dream" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Annie Moore" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "An Irish Girl's Opinion" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Old Ireland I Adore" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Granuaile" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Gra-mo-chroi. I'd Like to See Old Ireland Free Once More" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Come to the Bower" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "The Shan Van Voght (1828)," (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "The Meeting of Tara" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
- cf. "Not a Word of 'No Surrender'" (subject; Protestant opposition to Daniel O'Connell)
Recordings
- O. J. Abbott, "Daniel O'Connell" (on Abbott1)
References
- Roud #2313
- BI, RcDanOco