Paddy Whack

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Whack boasts of his Irish ancestry, his schooling (especially in fisticuffs), and his skill in war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153, (first of several "Fragments of Irish Songs")
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 72-73, "The Gentleman of the Army" (1 text)
cf. Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 16, "Paddy Whack Let a crack On the Lord Mayor's Back" (1 text)
ST E153A (Full)
Roud #5353
NOTES [202 words]: There is a broadside, "Paddy Whack," beginning "Oh here I am and that is flat," from the nineteenth century (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 123), and another (p. 142), "Since I've Been in the Army," which starts, "I'm Paddy Whack, from Bally-a-hack, not long ago turned soldier," but I don't know if either is the same piece (it's the item cited from Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster). There are five versions of the latter in Wolf, which implies that Paddy the character, at least, was popular. Also, John Moulden reports that Samuel Lover wrote the libretto for an opera, "Il Paddy Whack in Italia," in 1841; according to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 29, the libretto for this was by William Balfe.
Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 10, is "I'm a Paddy Whack, Just Landed."
According to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 557, "Whack" is an "old nautical term for proper share or due portion. 'A fair whack' referred to the provision of the correct ration of daily victuals aboard ship." So Paddy Whack might be an Irish sailor who demands his fair share. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: E153A

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