Town of Passage (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The town of Passage is neat and spacious, All situated upon the sea." The boats, sailors, bathers, lovers, and ferry to Carrigaloe are described. Molly Bowen has a lodging house where "often goes in one Simon Quin" to his bed among the fleas.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore humorous nonballad bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 254-256, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 82-83, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Town of Passage (II), (III)" (subject)
NOTES [153 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Passage ... is situated between Cork and its Cove...." - BS
It is also a very old town; according to T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 111, it is located near the junction of the rivers Suir and Barrow, and it was there that Strongbow first landed when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland in the twelfth century. - RBW
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "This song was introduced, with considerable effect, upon the London stage by the late Mr Charles Connor, in Lord Glengall's very amusing farce of the 'Irish Tutor.'" - BS
It apparently made an impression, too; Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 307, has an Irish character, quote it, implying that it was (though to be) very well known in Ireland at the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrPS254

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