The Yorkshire Irishman

This isn't the usual report of a session at the Dragon Folk Club. A report of last week's session will come in due course. Rather this goes back to the previous week when I wrote that 'this inspired Derek to sing a song which included the line "the land between England and Ireland, it's covered in water you know", although unfortunately I wasn't able to trace it.'

Derek gave me a little help and with that I was able to find that I had correctly identified it in a previous blog post when he sang it in April 2014.

Derek said that he found it in a book at Cecil Sharp House when he was a student. The book was The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire: Transcribed from Private Manuscripts, Rare Broadsides and Scarce Publications; with Notes and a Glossary by C J Davison Ingledew, M.A, Ph.D, F.G.H.S. And no, I didn't remember all of that from what Derek told me, nor did I note it down but in fact excerpts of the book are available on Google Books, but unfortunately not page 255 where you would find, to give it the full title, The Yorkshire Irishman; or, the Adventures of a Potato Merchant.

There are in fact other sources. The National Library of Scotland can provide us with a set of words. Here is an American publication with words and music which says that the song was "sung with great applause by Mr J Bray". Finally, there's a colourful version in the British Museum which claims the song to be written by G Nicks, sung by Mr Emery and published 20 August 1805. Unfortunately the museum's page is not working, so here is a copy from Look and Learn.

Incidentally, Roud lists the song as V33250.