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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Joe Offer ADD: Charladies' Ball (30) Lyr Add: THE CHARLADIES' BALL (O'Donovan/Brennan) 11 Sep 98


Liam's Brother, I hope you don't mind. I reformatted your lyrics and added a few missing words.
-Joe Offer-

THE CHARLADIES' BALL
(Harry O'Donovan)

You may talk of your outings, your picnics and parties,
Your dinners and dances and hoolies and all
But wait till I tell you of the gas that we had
On the night that we went to the Charladies' Ball.
I went there as Queen Anne and I went with my man.
He was dressed as a monkey locked up in a cage.
There was pirets and pirots and Hottentots and whatnots
And stars that you'd see on the music hall stage.

CHORUS
At the Charladies' Ball people said one and all,
"You're the belle of the ball, Mrs. Mulligan."
We had one-steps and two-steps and the divil knows what new steps.
We swore that we never would be dull again, be dad.
We had wine, porter and lemonade.
We had cocktails and cocoa and all.
We had champagne that night but we had real pains next morning,
The night we danced at the Charladies' Ball.

There was cowboys and Indians that came from Drumcondra,
Sweet Francis Street fairies all diamonds and stars.
There was one of the Rooneys as the clock over Mooney's
And a telegram boy as a message from Mars.
Mary Moore from the Lots was the Queen of the Scots
With a crown out of Woolworth’s perched up on her dome.
There was young Jemmy Whitehouse came dressed as a light-house
And a Camden Street Garbo that should have stayed home.

SECOND CHORUS
At the Charladies' Ball people said one and all,
"You're the belle of the ball, Mrs. Mulligan."
We had one-steps and two-steps and the divil knows what new steps.
We swore that we never would be dull again, be dad.
We had wine, porter and Jameson,
We had cocktails and cocoa and all.
We had rumbos and tangos, half-sets and fandangos,
The night that we danced at the Charladies' Ball.

Mary Ellen O'Rourke was the Queen of the Dawn.
By one-thirty she looked like a real dirty night.
Mick Farren, the bester, came dressed as a jester.
He burst his balloon and dropped dead with the fright.
Kevin Barr came as Bovril, "Stops that sinking feeling"
Astride of a bottle, pyjamas and all.
But he bumped into Faust, who was gloriously soused
And the two of them were sunk at the end of the hall.

THIRD CHORUS (same as before but with these last 2 lines):
We'd a real stand-up fight but we fell down to supper
The night that we danced at the Charladies' Ball.


(From Songs of Dublin, edited by Frank Harte (1978, 1993, Ossian) (pp. 88-90): this song was made famous by Jimmy O’Dea and written by Harry O’Donovan. The song was written for performing on stage, but it has so much that is Dublin in it, that it has been accepted by the tradition.)

Frank Harte recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4xK2uZoHa8


I couldn't find a listing for this song in either the Traditional Ballad Index or the Roud Index.


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