Here's the Mick Moloney recording from his wonderful McNally's Row of Flats album:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv2GLPuJ-s4
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:Are You There, Moriarity?
DESCRIPTION: "I'm located at headquarters, a special officer, Cornelius Moriarity here at your service sir.... I'm a stalwart copper in the Broadway squad, A metropolitan MP, And the young girls cry as I pass by, Are you there Moriarity?" Girls like the handsome cop
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham (1838-1905)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheer music, LOCSheet, sm1876 07624)
KEYWORDS: police humorous courting
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #10, pp. 35-36, "Are You There Moriarity!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 149, "Are You There, Moriarity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V38725
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Are You There, Moriarity" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1876 07624, "Are You There Moriarty!," Wm. A. Pond (New York), 1876(tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good Old Mountain Dew" (tune, per OLochlainn)
NOTES [227 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 104, this is not from a full-blown Harrigan play but from a shorter sketch of "The London Comic Singers," with this one being "sung by Harrian in a policeman's uniform." The performance "presents the happy, charming Irish cop, 'quick witted, always ready to welcome with joy,' whose primary interest lies in charming the ladies rather than catching criminals" (Williams, p. 139). He apparently wasn't alone; Williams adds, "During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Irish dominated New York City's police force," which was more an arm of Tammany Hall than a true police force; at least Moriarty, in trying to attract girls, was less venal than the policemen ging around extorting businesses on their beat.
This may actually have gotten funnier in tradition, e.g. Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia has a verse, "I'm a handy fellow at a custard, I take it into 'custardy,' And the kids all cry as I go by, 'Are you there, Moriarity?'" that isn't in the printed text in Moloney.
Wikipedia mentions a game, "Are You There, Moriarty," in which blindfolded players try to hit each other with rolled-up newspapers. I would assume the name comes from this song, but I've never heard of the game and the article never mentions the song. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 5.2
- Franceschina: John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003
- Williams: William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996
File: MA149Go to the Ballad Search form
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