Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door

DESCRIPTION: Singer, an Irishman, admonishes listeners to always keep a horseshoe over the door, and lists misfortunes that befell him when he failed to do so, including his wife's "bringing in a horde of her relations."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan/Music: Dave Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: humorous family magic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #36, pp. 134-136, "Never Take the Horse-Shoe From the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 85, "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 102, "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 37, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
Roud #8839
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Never Take the Horseshoe From the Door" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
Mixed Vocal Quartet, ("HarriganHartBraham melodies, no. 2," Songs of the past, no. 1") (Medley including bits of "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," "Babies on Our Block," and others) (Victor 35578)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(412), "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mule (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)" (parody of this song)
cf. "The Constitutional Movement" (tune)
NOTES [190 words]: The version in Beck is fragmentary; I suspect the original is a good deal longer. - PJS
Right you are.
For background on Edward Harrigan and David Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." This particular song is from "The Mulligan Guards' Surprise," which premiered February 16, 1880; Moody, pp. 100-101. According to Moody, p. 101, "[Dan Mulligan's] troubles began 'when the wife that I adore brought in a crowd of her relations and I found the horseshoe laying on the floor.'" Franceschina, p. 127, says that this is "a jaunty patter song sung by Dan Mulligan at his surprise party."
Beck's version is unquestionably the Harrigan/Braham song, and it's only a little shorter than the original, but it has been heavily folk processed -- in essence, the mentions of Daniel Mulligan's family, found in the original, have been converted into generic references. A typical example is converting the name of "Cordelia [Mulligan]" to "the little wife."
This tune was used for a song about a moderate Irish freedom movement, "The Constitutional Movement," from the McPeake Family. That's all I know about the origin of the latter. - RBW
Bibliography

Franceschina: John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003
Moody: Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980

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