Town of Passage (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "The town of Passage ... situated Upon the say, 'Tis nate and dacent." Ships at anchor, ferries to Carrigaloe, but also mud cabins, melodious pigs and dead fish abound. Foreign ships deal in whisky-punch. Convicts are bound for Botany Bay.
AUTHOR: Father Prout [Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)] (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 258-260, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 99-100, "The Town Passage" (1 text)
Roud #9574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Town of Passage (I), (II)" (subject)
NOTES [154 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 notes Father Prout's comment on his "The Town of Passage (III)" as a parody of I and II: "Its reverend author, or rather concocter, has described it as 'manifestly an imitation of that unrivalled dithyramb, 'The Groves of Blarney,' with a little of its humour, and all its absurdity.'" - BS
Father Prout, however, did not compose "The Groves of Blarney"; his great work is "Bells of Shandon." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: CrPS258

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