“O'Reilly's Daughter”
Description
The narrator "shags" landlord or bartender O'Reilly's daughter, then assaults father, mother or both.
Notes
Annotator Legman (pp. 138-139) includes the text of "The Rover," which he dates to 1790, as the forerunner of the modern bawdy ballad. The "C" text in Randolph-Legman I is only coincidentally "One-Eyed Reilly." - EC
This exists in an extremely bowdlerized version [in which the singer wants to "marry" rather than "shag" the daughter, and in which the daughter is the only one to receive his attentions], which was made popular by the Clancy Bros. in the 1960s. The [Silber] entry is that song. - PJS - RBW
Logsdon observes that T. S. Eliot included a verse of this in _The Cocktail Party_.- RBW
Cross references
- cf. "I Went Down to New Orleans"
References
- Cray, pp. 101-105, "O'Reilly's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
- Randolph-Legman I, pp. 137-140, "One-Eyed Reilly" (3 texts, 1 tune)
- Logsdon 53, pp. 249-252, "One-Eyed Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Botkin-AmFolklr, p. 838, "(One-Eyed Riley)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment of a raftsman's song, so short that it might be this or something else. The lyrics are different, but the feeling is similar)
- Silber-FSWB, p. 172, "Reilly's Daughter" (1 text)
- DT, REILLY1*
- Roud #1161
- BI, EM101