Patrick's Day Parade

DESCRIPTION: "Saint Patrick was a gentleman, his name we celebrate, And on the 17th of March the Irish congregate." They'll "face the divil, friend or foe In the Patrick's Day parade." They cheer both America and their Irish heritage, and all who are in the parade
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (The Day We Celebrate; also sheet music by William A. Pond & Co.; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #2, pp. 7-10, "Patrick's Day Parade" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Franceschina, _David Braham: The American Offenbach_, Routledge, 2003, pp. 81-82, "(The Patrick's Day Parade)" (before-and-after texts of the chorus, which was revised over the years)
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Patrick's Day Parade" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman" (opening line)
NOTES [279 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
The opening line "Saint Patrick was a gentleman" was in use by the 1830s, so Edward Harrigan clearly borrowed it. But it's not entirely clear whether he borrowed more of this song.
Williams, p. 111, says that the play "The Day We Celebrate" premiered in 1875; Moloney says 1874; it appears both are correct. "The song 'Patrick's Day Parade,' with music by Braham, was, in fact, a rewrite of Bob Hall's music for the same lyrics, arranged by M. De Donato, for 'The Day We Celebrate,' an earlier version of the sketch, and published in 1874..... But the differences in melodic contour and harmonic complexity are significant, particularly in the chorus, where Braham managed to convince Harrigan to rewrite the text to allow for a more varied and interesting melody" (Franceschina, p. 81).
The plot of "The Day We Celebrate," which was later renamed "Patrick's Day Parade," sounds as if it was lifted from "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] or one of the other adulterer-has-to-hide songs that have been traced back as far as Boccaccio's Decameron. Irish servant-woman Johanna McCann, thinking her boyfriend FItzgerald Conroy will be marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, invites Hogarth Higgins to visit. But Conroy arrives in turn, forcing Higgins to hide in a closet. Conroy finds his hat, eventually finds Higgins, and beats him (Franceschina, p. 81).
According to Blow, p. 296, Theodore Roosevelt knew this song, or at least the lines "Shout hurrah for Erin go Bragh And all the Yankee nation," and sang them as he and the Rough Riders approached the coast of Cuba in 1898. - RBW
Bibliography

Blow: Michael Blow, A Ship to Remember: The Maine and the Spanish-American War, William Morrow and Company, 1992
Franceschina: John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003
Williams: William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996

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File: HaBrPaDa

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