Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-05-17
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY estbrook
Peeler

AVh many year nave Woutc0
l. to know the words of one Of
those songs which Irish com(k
dams sing entitled, Paddy M
Carthy's Wake" or inn
O'Reillys Wake or Mickey Nc.
Ginty's Wake"
1t doesn't make any difference
which one for they all are
pretty much alike, being largely
composed of rhyming n ames
such as Dooley and Hooley.
Burke and McGuirk. Flanagan,
Hannigan, etc., on and on.
Pat Harrington used to sing
il. or them, at Jack Whites club
and there have been many
others.
If an Irishman does the song,
nobody takes offense and the
Irish in the audience beam and
laugh at every pore and every
thing goes off very well.
TT is a fast song, starting out
L about as follows:
"Sure, Pat McCann Was an rush
man,
He came from County Cork.
He sailed across the ocean deep
To little old NeU York."
Then he meets Bri Get
O'Reilly and they get married
and have quite few children
and all this and that and finally
one night M Cam gets all
dressed up and goes to Paddy
McCarthy's wake or Dinny
O'Reilly's or Steve O'Donnells.
Vote for one.)
Not until the other night
when l dropped in TO hear
Morton Downey at the Waldorf
did | realize how simple it all is.
MIR. Downey. of course, is
Irish and he does one for an
encore and. although 1 should
have recognized the quick Turn.
tum tempo and the faint imita.
ton of the bagpipe in the on
chestration, l didn't realize II
he was doing wake song unE.
he started moaning: "Wi-diddy-
di, wy-diddy-di," which is a sort
of Irish equivalent 10 Marry.
DoatS,
1t breaks down to Why Did
He Die ?"
As Morton went on II dawned
on me that all this time l had
been hankering TO know the
words OF song that really
doesn't seem TO need any fixed.
or official words at all. l mean
al all, at all the Irish idiom.
WHAT you do is give them the
W names. Lots of names.
fast. Finnegan came in ag'in.
and Rooney and Mooney, Raj
ferty, McCafferty, Kiley and
Riley and Finn and Quinn get.
ting louder and faster as you 60.
and stamping your foot and
beating the top of the piano
with the fiat of your hand.
To show you how liberal. how
optional the words are. if some
body gets up from a table in the
middle OF the song and starts
across the floor TO leave the
room. and the artist says. FIRST
door on the left" even that fits
nicely into the text and every
body laughs just as much as II
he had stuck 10 the script.
I HAVE never had any particu-
i lar reason for wanting 10
know the words. But l know
the words of Abdullah Bull-Bull
and the Baggage Car Ahead and
frankie and Johnny, both ver-
sions. coed and stag. and quite
lot OF others and / just
thought it would be rather nice
to, know .tbe'wake, sors; or one
Singing Isl Lutte out ,of r2A
line. At ,tffaj:I am, a Got bet
than some Of those Old ,bslc.,
who continue TO : crowd '. the
hotels in our big towns for inn
portant conventions Of war in
dustries, and get together in
suite X on The 22d floor, with a
waiter tending bar at a long.
white table.
Pretty soon they begin to
meet others who served in the
same division in France and rip
into the old Gray Mare" and
"Mademoiselle From Armep-
there's and One keg OF Beer
for the Four of Us"
Well. II isn't important.
] listened raptly TO my friend.
family realizing that something
IN me, my Irishness I guess you
could call il, was laughing with
him and, glancing. around. no
ticed that others Who had q
little of the same in their faces
were responding hilariously a.
MIR. Downey w'hac ked that
piano and howled 'Wi-Diddy.D-
Diddy-Di-Diddy-Di" and Joined
wildly in the applause as he
wound up on that prolonged,
ever-famAiar note land Houla-
han did something or other at
Paddy McCarthy's wa-a-ake."