“Pat O'Brien”
Description
Pat asks Nancy to meet him. Having decided not to marry her, he stabs her. Her ghost tells her mother of the crime. Her body is found and Pat arrested. The ghost keeps appearing to him, finally inducing him to confess. He is hanged
Notes
"The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" is just the first similar ballad that came to mind. As Munnelly notes, "it is a classic of the type of murder ballads which eminated from the popular broadsheet presses of the 19th century." Munnelly also remarks on the "popularity of this song in oral tradition." I don't have a broadside example yet. - BS
Cross references
- cf. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B]" (theme)
References
- Laws P39, "Pat O'Brien"
- Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 10, "Pat O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
- DT 516, PATOBRI
- Roud #1919
- BI, LP39