Philip Ryan, in his biography of Jimmy O'Dea, says the following:

"The character of Biddy Mulligan was inspired by an old song written before Jimmy himself was born. Called "Queen of the Coombe", it was specially written by W S North for a Gaiety Theatre pantomime "Taladoin, or The Scamp with the Lamp" which opened on Thursday, December 26, 1889. The song was sung by Richard Purdon who played the part of the Widow Twankey. The words were printed in the programme as was the custom then, in order to establish copyright.

THE QUEEN OF THE COOMBE

I'm a dashing fine widow that lives in a spot,
That is christened the Dublin Coombe;
Where the shops and the stalls are all out on the street
And my palace consists of one room.
At Plunkett Street corner for forty-five years,
I've stood at my stall, 'tis no lie,
And during them years there's not one could be found
To say black was the white of my eye.

You may ramble through Clare and the County Kildare,
And from Drogheda down to Macroom;
But you never will see a widow like me,
Mrs Twankey, the Queen of the Coombe

I sell apples and oranges, pears and split peas,
I sell bulls eyes and sugar-stick sweet;
On Saturday night I sell seconhand clothes
From my stall on the floor of the street.
I sell fish on a Friday spread out on a board,
Fresh cod fish from out of the say
Haddocks and mackerel and herring so sweet,
The herrings of famed Dublin Bay.

Chorus

Seamus Kavanagh later adapted it, calling it "Biddy Muilligan the Pride of the Coombe" and it was sung by several Dublin performers like Tony Reddin... It was recorded on the Eclipse label (...) by a Dublin comedian Patrick Kavanagh, around the time that Jimmy recorded it for Parlophone and made it his own. It was to serve as his theme music throughout his career...
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