The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3697   Message #19745
Posted By: Murray
23-Jan-98 - 03:28 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Old Woman in Belfast
Subject: RE: old woman from belfast
The tune in the database is that of "Villikins and his Dinah", aka "Sweet Betsy From Pike", and that seems to be THE tune for this song. Note the 'tooraliyay" burden, which is "proper" to that tune. DT text very similar to the 2nd in Ed Cray's great collection, The Erotic Muse [2nd edition, 1992), 127. His references include Harry Morgan, "More Rugby Songs" (1968), 43. I have heard a Scots version [to the same tune] beginning "There was an old woman in Glasgow did dwell". The original town is by now beyond finding, I should think.