Quigley and Picco

DESCRIPTION: "Come all good people, please pay attention Unto the lines which I write in grief; It's about a hero who is worse than Nero," John Picco. Quigly, far from home, sees Picco's light -- but is refused shelter because he's an Irish Catholic. He curses Picco
AUTHOR: Johnny Quigley (source: Michael Murphy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891: "Originally published in the St John's Evening Telegram on 24 December 1891 (vol. 13/291:19) and reproduced as 'Quigley on Picco' in James Murphy's Old Songs of Newfoundland (1912)," according to the notes at ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 144-146, "Quigley and Picco" (1 text)
Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 162-164, "Quigley and Picco" (1 text)
Roud #30677
RECORDINGS:
Bernard Nash and Tom Murphy, "Quigley And Picco" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [156 words]: According to Michael P. Murphy, p. 147, Johnny Quigley and John Picco were real people. Quigley was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and came to Newfoundland in the early nineteenth century, working there s a carpenter, dying many years later in St. John's. Given the religious strife that afflicted Newfoundland, it is perhaps not too surprising that Picco refused Quigley shelter; Quigley frankly did not help his cause by (it would appear from the song) being a little too eager to talk about his heritage.
Murphy calls Quigley a "ballad writer of note," but the only other song I've seen attributed to him is "Jack Hinks." Most sources for that song spell his name "Johnnie Quigley," but of course that is a trivial distinction in nineteenth century Newfoundland, which was mostly illiterate.
In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Murph162

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