Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman

DESCRIPTION: "St. Patrick was a gentleman, and came of decent people"; they are named O'Houlihan, O'Shaughnessy... He preached from a high hill and "banished all the varmin!" Vermin's misfortunes are described. He planted turf, brought pigs and brewed good whiskey.
AUTHOR: Henry Bennett and Mr. Toleken (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)? (see NOTES re Zozimus)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814-1815 (according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous patriotic religious animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 22-27, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 105, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 154, "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), pp. 9-10, "St. Patrick Was a Gintleman" (1 text)
Roud #13377
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(241c), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 c.18(277), Harding B 11(3395), Harding B 20(151), Harding B 11(2874), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day Parade" (opening line)
NOTES [330 words]: The Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland and O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland texts are very close, with a few place and person names changed and verse order changed. Croker would have considered the names of the Saint's parents on his father's side a significant change. Croker has that "His father was a Gallagher, His mother was a Brady"; both texts agree on his mother's side. Croker explains the pedigree: "St Patrick was an Irish [not French, Scotch, Welsh, ....] gentleman. The Gallaghers were a family of consideration in Donegal; the Bradys were the same in Cavan; the O'Shaughnessy, ditto in Galway; and the O'Gradys 'possessed that part of Clare which is now called the Barony of Bunratty.' This 'respectable' pedigree settles the matter."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland says that two verses "were subsequent additions by other hands [than Bennett and Toleken]" Those are the verses missing from the broadsides. - BS
In this index, Toleken is also responsible for "Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane."
The line "Saint Patrick was a gentleman" seems to have been a commonplace; Edward Harrigan used it as the opening of his song "Patrick's Day Parade." For Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on our Block."
"Zozimus" also sang this song, and is sometimes given credit for it; for Zozimus, see the notes to "The Finding of Moses." The best evidence against his authorship is probably the song's early date; if it really goes back to 1815 or earlier, Zozimus was barely into his twenties when the song came out.
The claim that Saint Patrick had ancestors with Irish names is, of course, ridiculous. We don't really know much about the life of Patrick, but what we have is based on his own autobiographical accounts, which state quite clearly that he was born in post-Roman Britain and was taken to Ireland as a slave. It does appear that he was a "gentleman," in the sense that his family was fairly well-to-do, but if he had a family surname, it would have been a Roman name! -RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OCon105

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