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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
catfeet Folklore: Auctioning Off Wives (15) Lyr Add: IN PRAISE OF JOHN MAGEE 04 Jun 97


Here's one that doesn't seem to be in the database.
It's done by Boys of the Lough, and it's called

IN PRAISE OF JOHN MAGEE

For I sing in praise of John Magee who was auctioning his wife.
She was a hard working woman but the divil all her life.
Neither peace nor contentment this poor man could find,
So a way to get rid of her come into his mind.

Chorus: Diddle dee eye dee dum diddle dee um dee dum di diddle doh.

It was on a Thursday morning that she give him some old jaw,
So he says, "I can auction you according to the law."
So he printed on her forehead that the auction she would go,
And the more were the buyers the better she'd be sold.

Chorus

Now a farmer from Kilkenny to the auction he did whit
With his mouth hanging open like a nine-foot gate.
He says, "Such a pretty woman I'd never seen before,"
And the more that they bid for her he bid a shilling more.

Chorus

Nor a farmer from Kilarney who had just been passing by,
He bought this old geezer at shillings twenty-five.
Oh, he'd been a widower and a neighbor of her own,
And she hopped on the cart and they both drove home.

Chorus

Now, to conclude and finish on to end upon me strife,
This poor John Magee he's gone home without his wife.
"May the divil follow after her," the auctioneer did say,
And "Amen" said the women and they all joined to pray.


Chorus


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