Down Went McGinty

DESCRIPTION: McGinty bet that McCann could not carry him up a wall. McGinty was right, and "Down went McGinty to the bottom of the wall And though he won the five, He was more dead than alive." McGinty's adventures lead to more falls, prison, death, etc.
AUTHOR: Joseph Flynn
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (sheet music copyrighted)
KEYWORDS: gambling humorous injury prison children party death ghost
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 306-307, "Dan McGinty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 81, pp. 102-103, "Down Went Dan McGinty" (2 texts)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 134-136, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text, partial tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 120-123, "Down Went McGnty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 154-156, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 235-237, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 256, "(Down Went McGintee)" (1 short text)
DT, DWNMGNTY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 74-77, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the published sheet music)
Roud #4870
NOTES [155 words]: According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 135, during the late nineteenth century, in American pop music, "In effect the Gaelic surnames became a sort of advertisement for comedy. Songs with titles such as 'Mike McCarthy's Wake,' 'McGonigle's Led Astray,' 'Reagan's Evening Out,' 'Let Her Go Gallagher, 'Murphy's Boarding House,' and any song featuring the name 'McGinty' carried the promise of comedy."
This is clearly a prime example of the type, and probably the one that went most strongly into tradition.
Williams, p. 146, says that the song was introduced in a program "McGinty in Town" by the Carncross minstrel troop.
The song was popular to produce numerous parodies, including the author's answer "McGinty's Wake." Indeed, there were so many of them that by 1890 someone had written a song "I'll Paralyze the Man That Says McGinty" (Williams, p. 147). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: SRW134

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