David Kincaid, “The Opinions of Paddy Magee” - live, New York Public Library/Performing Arts 2011

David Kincaid, “The Opinions of Paddy Magee” - live at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York City, March 26, 2011. This was part of an exhibition series entitled “Ireland America - The Ties that Bind,” put on by New York University in conjunction with the Public Library, and it was my honor and privilege to have been invited to perform. I’d like to thank Prof. Marion Casey and Dr. Mick Moloney for helping to make it happen. I was also honored to have been provided with a Color Guard (Tom Burke, Steve O’Neill, Patrick Salland) by the 69th NYSV Historical Society with their beautiful stand of colors, which added so much to the presentation.
The Opinions Of Paddy Magee (found in “Joe English’s Irish and Comic Songster,” 1864 by Dick & Fitzgerald, 18 Ann St., NY), which uses the music of the jig Paddy O'Carroll, a melody at least a half century old by 1861, sets forth the principle argument Thomas Francis Meagher used to rally Irishmen to the Union cause - to repay America for its assistance to refugees from the great famine of the 1840s. Paddy is also aware of British support of the South, which inspired many Fenians, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's (IRB) American branch, to join the Union army, and delights in "Columbia" the political cartoonists' female symbol of America, "defying the bould British Lion." He brings "musket to showlder" for his new country, merging his own anti-British attitude with that of such noted Americans as George Washington, who "slathered the Tories" and General Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson, who defeated the British at New Orleans in 1815. (Liner notes by Joseph Bilby) From the album "The Irish Volunteer - Songs of the Irish Union Soldier, 1861-65", available on Spotify, iTunes, TH-cam, Apple Music, Amazon and most other streaming and download services.
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THE OPINIONS OF PADDY MAGEE (Written and sung by Joe English)
I'm Paddy Magee, sir, from Ballinahee, sir,
In an illigant ship I come over the say;
Father Donahoe sent me, my passage he lent me-
Sure, only for that, I'd a walked all the way!
He talked of America's freedom and glory;
"Begorra," says I, "that's the counthry for me!"
So, to ind a long story, I've now come before ye,
To give the opinions of Paddy Magee.
Whin Ireland was needing, and famine was feeding,
And thousands were dying for something to ate,
'Twas America's daughters that sent over the waters
The ships that were loaded with corn and whate:
And Irishmen sure will forever remember,
The vessels that carried the flag of the free;
And the land that befriended, they'll die to defend it,
And that's the opinions of Paddy Magee.
I'm sure none are bowlder the musket to showlder,
Enlisting to learn the sojering trade--
With Corcoran fighting, in Meagher delighting,
They swell up the ranks of the Irish Brigade.
With Columbia defying the bould British Lion,
The sons of ould Ireland forever shall be;
I'll have no intervention, if that's their intention--
And that's the opinions of Paddy Magee.
John Bull, ye ould divil, ye'd betther keep civil!
Remimber the story of 'Seventy-six,
Whin Washington glorious he slathered the tories;
Away from Columbia you then cut your sticks.
And if once again you're inclined to be meddling,
There's a city that's called New Orleans, d'ye see,
Where Hickory Jackson he drove off the Saxon--
Now that's the opinions of Paddy Magee.
Though now we're in trouble, it's only a bubble,
We'll soon make the foes of the Union retire;
Foreign knaves that would meddle had better skedaddle,
For them Uncle Sam has a taste of Greek fire!
They'll find if they try it, Columbia's a giant,
And victory perched on the flag of the free;
For the American nation can whale all creation--
And that's the opinions of Paddy Magee.