Glass of Whisky, The

DESCRIPTION: Murrough O'Monaghan, home from the wars minus a leg, begs along a road. He wishes he had been a marine that had retired with a full pay pension. Good whisky gives him strength to face illness and weather. He wishes Merry Christmas and whisky for all.
AUTHOR: William Paulet Carey (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (_The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink begging injury disability soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 80-82, "The Glass of Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was a Young Man in Sweet Tipperary" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [114 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland details Carey's background, including his turn as witness for the Crown. "Considering the political apostasy of the author -- a crime seldom forgotten or forgiven in Ireland -- it is singular that any song known to have been of his writing should have become popular, which Murrough O'Monaghan's aspiration respecting a glass of whisky certainly did; and it has continued to be so to the present time -- upwards of forty years. This, however, has been accounted for to the Editor by the statement that the character of Murrough O'Monaghan was a sketch from life" of a well known character said "to have been a faithful emissary of the United Irishmen." - BS
File: CrPS080

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