Recently met a button accordion player in his 80's on the Queensland Sunshine Coast, who knew snippets of a poem/ditty called The Irish Fire Brigade. He wasn't sure whether there was originally a tune involved.

The story goes something like ... A call from Mrs Murphy whose house is on fire ... they take 3 hours to stoke up the steam boiler on the fire engine ... they eventually wash Mrs Murphy away while the house burns down.

I strongly suspect that this is not traditional and may have originated in Tin Pan Alley.

Any help please?

Regards John