Pat of Mullingar

DESCRIPTION: "They may talk of Flying Childers" and other fast horses but none compares to the filly that drags Pat Mulingar's jaunting car. She won cups but "lost an eye at Limerick and an ear at Waterloo... She's gentle as the dove sirs, her speed you can't deny"
AUTHOR: Harry Sydney (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(234b))
KEYWORDS: racing horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 10, "Pat of Mullingar" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 90, "Pat of Mullingar" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarryRichmondsMyYoungWifeAndISongster, pp. 45-47, "Pat of Mullingar" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Pat of Mullingar"
Roud #3067
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(234b), "Pat of Mullingar", J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also 2806 c.15(130), Harding B 11(2967), 2806 b.11(121), "Pat of Mullingar"; Harding B 26(503), Harding B 19(91), "Pat of Mullinger"
SAME TUNE:
The Contractor ("I'm a swate contractor, who supplies the army-boys, To chate the public of this land is the chief of all my joys") (RodeyMaguiresComicVarietySongster, p. 19)
The Star of Erin's Isle ("It gives me very great delight well all here to see, Faith, well and hearty, sure I am, as iver wish to be") (ShamusOBrienSongster, p. 50)
NOTES [150 words]: Flying Childers, born in 1714, "is considered the first truly great racehorse in the history of the Thoroughbred." (source: Thoroughbred Heritage site) - BS
This seems to have been borrowed a lot, reportedly for "The South Down Militia" and, more recently, for another "Pat of Mullingar" song about an Irish rebel who could not be tracked down.
Richard Anthony Baker, British Music Hall: An Illustrated History, 2014 (I use the 2020 Pen & Sword paperback edition), p. 13, says that "Harry Sydney [c. 1826-1870] was a favorite entertainer of both Dickens and Thackery. He wrote most of own material, which included comic, sentimental, topical and political songs.... The Era maintained that his political songs were without rival: 'although Conservative in his views, politicians and public men of every shade of opinion were freely and generally good-naturedly criticised in these effusions.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: OCon010

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