Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe

DESCRIPTION: "I am a scrap of a widow" from the Coombe in Dublin. She has had a room and stall, selling fruit, sweets and second-hand clothes, for (35) years. "And where would you see a nate widow like me, Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, p. 230, "Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 94, "Mrs Mulligan the Pride of Coombe" (1 text)
DT, BIDDYMUL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 10-11, "Biddy Mulligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16250
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Biddy Mulligan
Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe
NOTES [125 words]: Harte declares this a relatively recent song, made famous by Jimmy O'Dea, who acted the character of Biddy. He does not say that O'Dea wrote the song, but it seems not impossible. - RBW
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "The song was was supposedly written and composed by Seamus Kavanagh, but for reservations concerning such attributions, see Tom Munnelly, Mount Callan Garland, 121." Munnelly: "'The Bandon Blarney Stone' was published in sheet-music form by Walton's Musical Galleries of Dublin in 1936 and its authorship ascribed to Seamus Kavanagh. That the song had been doing the rounds considerably earlier than that is proved by the fact that a recording of it was made in America by Shaun O'Nolan, 'The Wicklow Piper,' in 1926." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OLoc230A

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography