Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann

DESCRIPTION: "I am a decent Irishman, I've a daughter Mary Ann... and you bet she is so fresh, she will never spoil." The girl is always going to balls and courting young men. At one, she is arrested, but promptly freed when the police learn who she is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: courting police humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 80-81, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #9569
NOTES [110 words]: This song poses a bit of a conundrum. The chorus runs, "She's a darling, she's a daisy, and she nearly drives me crazy, With a hand and foot upon her like a man. And everywhere she goes you can tell by her turned-up nose That she's Dennis McGonagle's daughter Mary Ann." This obviously has the same source as the as the lyric "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" found in "Hungry Hash House" and "Sara Jane."
And yet, the feeling of the two versions is so different that they can properly be considered separate songs. And which one (if either one) is original? I have no answer. - RBW
File: Dean080

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