"Kelligrew's Soiree"

No personal notes.

Found nothing in the usual sources, save for wikipedia (see ink, below), not even any abc files. According to The Digital Tradition;

This is a popular Newfoundland folk song written by Johnny Burke in the 1920's, closely based on an older New York Irish song called "The Irish Jubilee", which documents a similar party and lists the guests and bill of fare.

Kelligrews Soiree
(J. Burke)

You may talk of Clara Nolan's ball or anything you choose,
But it couldn't hold a snuff-box to the spree at Kelligrews.
If you want your eyeballs straightened just come out next week with me;
And you'll have to wear your glasses at the Kelligrews Soiree.

     There was birch rind, tar twine, cherry wine and turpentine,
     Jowls and cavalances, ginger beer and tea;
     Pig's feet, cat's meat, dumplings boiled up in a sheet,
     Dandelion and crackies' teeth At the Kelligrews Soiree.

Oh, I borrowed Cluney's beaver, as I squared my yards to sail;
And a swallow-tail from Hogan that was foxy on the tail;
Billy Cuddahie's old working pants and Patsy Nolan's shoes,
And an old white vest from Fogarty To sport at Killegrews.

     There was Dan Milley, Joe Lilly, Tantan and Mrs. Tilley,
     Dancing like a little filley; 'twould raise your heart to see;
     Jim Brine, Din Ryan, Flipper Smith and Caroline;
     I tell you boys, we had a time at the Kelligrews Soiree.

Oh, when I arrived at Betsy Snook's that night at half past eight,
The place was blocked with carriages stood waiting at the gate.
With Cluney's funnel on my pate the first words Betsy said:
"Here comes the local preacher with a pulpit on his head!"

     There was Bill Mews, Dan Hughes, Wilson, Taft, and Teddy Roose,
     While Bryant he sat in the blues and looking hard at me;
     Jim Fling, Tom King, Johnson, champion of the ring,
     And all the boxers I could bring to the Kelligrews Soiree.

"The Saratoga Lancers first," Miss Betsy kindly said;
Sure I danced with Nancy Cronan And her Grannie on the Head;
And Hogan danced with Betsy oh you should have seen his shoes!
As he lashed old muskets from the rack that night at Kelligrews.

     There was boiled guineas, cold guineas, bullock's heads and picaninnies
     And everything to catch the pennies, you'd break your sides to see;
     Boiled duff, cold duff, apple jam was in a cuff;
     I tell you, boys, we had enough at the Kelligrews Soiree.

Crooked Flavin struck the fiddler and a hand I then took in;
You should see George Cluney's beaver And it flattened to the rim;
And Hogan's coat was like a vest -- the tails were gone, you see.
Says I, "The devil haul ye and your Kelligrews Soiree!"

Definitions and interpretations

• birch rind - bark or cortex of a birch tree, esp used in the fisheries as a covering, insulation, etc.
• turpentine - resin of a conifer, esp fir, used as an ingredient in pitch and for home-remedies.
• jowls - meat from the jaw-bone of a pig.
• cavalances - type of small bean (Dolichos barbadensis, D. sinensis) used for soup.
• crackie - a small, noisy mongrel dog.
• beaver - a top hat, originally made from the underfur of a beaver.
• swallow-tail - a man's full-dressed jacket with two long tapering tails at the back.
• picaninnies - the Newfoundland corruption of piccalilies, which is a relish, which you'd serve with a cold meat, like a cow's head.
• foxy - faded in colour from a dark to a lighter hue.
• funnel - a top hat (jocular).
• duff - a pudding made of flour and water, sometimes with suet and raisins added, boiled in a cloth bag.
• cuff - in normal parlance this is a thick, usually fingerless, mitten made of wool, swanskin or leather, worn in winter (also knowns as "shucks"). In this case, probably a reference to a pastry.
• "Squared my yards to sail" - let the sails out at the beginning of a voyage; the narrator got dressed for the party in his borrowed finery.