Lyr ADD: The Big Ship Sails

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: The Big Ship Sails
From: GerryM
Date: 15 Aug 23 - 09:25 PM

This song was sung at the Mudcat Worldwide Zoom singaround of 15/16 August 2023, but, unlike all the versions in this thread, the date of all the events was given as "the 19th of September".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Dom
Date: 26 Jul 22 - 05:27 AM

I grew up in New Zealand 1950s. I remember the words "cold and frosty morning" as part of The Big Ship sails... song. I do not recall any game attached to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 21 - 09:34 AM

“Illee.. Allee…oh” was the lyric I learned in Glasgow tenements 60 years ago -
I am fully resonating with the French theory .. at first when I looked this old children’s thread the needle game song up and saw references to “Alley Alley oh” I thought I’d misremembered. This surprised me as sounds and music are obsessively remembered by me.

I also lived and worked in France and “there in the water” (il y a l’eau) OF COURSE is what we sung as kids. I have pas du doubt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 08:38 PM

I watched the 1960's British film " A Taste of Honey " on TV the other night and it featured a lot of children's street songs and this was one of them. Here is a link to a piece of film in the British Library of children singing the song and performing the dance in London 1957.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-big-ship-sailed-1957

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Lorraine
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 10:38 PM

We sang this song in the playground in Melbourne, Australia in the early 60s.
No English links that I know of at that time but it had to start somewhere.
It often pops into my head as I walk on the beach near Port Phillip Bay heads and see the ships and pilot boats pass through.
Kinda appropriate today.
Thanks for all the details and rememberances.
No to pass it on to the grandchildren....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Fran
Date: 30 Aug 17 - 07:09 AM

I sang this song in the playground at primary school in Stockport in the early 60s.
We would gather anyone whovwanted to play by walking around the playground chanting "all join on if you want to play 'The Big Ship Sails'.
We all got in a line holding hands. The person at the end put their hand against the wall. The person at the other end led the line under the arm of the person at the wall. They would then go round again leading the line under each persons arm in turn in the line. This resulted in each person having to turn around and their arms would be crossed. Once all arms were crossed the two ends would join to make a circle as we all faced inwards (a bit of a difficult manoeuvre). We continued to sing thd first verse. We would still be holding hands with our arms crossed as we would then shake them up and down. We would sing the second verse and shake our heads the third verse we'd shake our arms up and down. For the last verse we would dip our heads.
The big ship sails on the alley alley o
The alley alley o (×2)
The big ship sails on the alley alley o
on the last day of September.

The captain said this will never never do
Never never do (×2)
The captain said this will never never do
on the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
Bottom of the sea (×2)
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
on the last day of September.

We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
Deep blue sea(×2)
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
on the last day of September.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Jeremy
Date: 20 Aug 17 - 04:00 PM

A suggestion I have come across is that it is a reference to the loss of the Steam Ship Arctic on 27th September 1854, en route from Liverpool to New York - accounts indicate that this had the same public impact as the loss of the Titanic half a century later: see https://poll.pollcode.com/93816625_result and https://www.thoughtco.com/the-sinking-of-the-steamship-arctic-1774002 .

And then a case I think of memory fading fast, but the song going on forever.

Progress provides for greater and worse disasters...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Nov 15 - 04:42 PM

If Karrie is still around (March 09) your reference to the old journal version would have been extremely helpful here had you given us at least a rough date when it was written.

Going by other postings it would appear to predate the opening of the Ship Canal and the sinking of the Lusitania (1912), although a Lusitania version did definitely exist.

The tune is also used for a much older children's singing game 'Old Roger is Dead' and then of course it was adopted in WWI for the words of 'The Old Barbed Wire'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 13 - 08:45 AM

When I was a kid in Newfoundland, we would "thread, thread, the grandmother's needle" - everyone holding hands, with the leader going under the arch of a person next to the wall. As we continued singing the leader would go under the second set of hands, then third, etc, until everyone was turned backward with their arms crossed. Then the two open people joined to make a circle, where everyone is holding hands arms crossed. We jumped up and down singing the "Big ship sails on the alley-alley-oh, the alley-alley oh-"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Trish
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 03:15 PM

Just did a quick search and got the below, don't know if it's true or not:

Rhyme & History

THE BIG SHIP SAILS ON THE ALLY-ALLY-OH

The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
The ally-ally-oh, the ally-ally-oh
Oh, the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
On the last day of September.

The captain said it will never, never do
Never, never do, never, never do
The captain said it will never, never do
On the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
The bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
On the last day of September.

We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
The deep blue sea, the deep blue sea
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
On the last day of September.

The words of the Nursery Rhyme and children's song, 'The big ship sails... ' have been suggested by Kevin Dinnin. Little is known about the origins of the song, but we have speculated on possible origins

The big ship sails
Nursery Rhyme lyrics, origins and history

Nursery Rhyme Origins

The rhyme and song was often sang by children playing skipping games, the lyrics suited the ritual chants for children 'jumping in' the skipping ropes. Perhaps the term 'big ships' provide a clue to the origins.  The Manchester Ship canal was opened in 1894 and is the eighth-longest ship canal in the world, being only slightly shorter than the Panama Canal in Central America. The MSC was built for ocean-going ships - there were only six ships in the world too big to use the Ship Canal. These big ships started their journeys on the canal which led to the sea.  The Manchester Ship Canal connected Manchester, W England, with the Mersey estuary at Eastham, Birkenhead. Perhaps this is the origin of the song...

Info supplied by Kevin Dinnin
 

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Trish
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 03:10 PM

I alway knew the Dusty Bluebells as children's game and went as follows:

Also known as In and out of the Scottish bluebells or Dusky bluebells.

Everyone stands in a circle, holding hands and raising their arms to make a series of arches. One person is IT and skips in and out of the arches. At the same time, the circle sings:

In and out of the dusty bluebells,
In and out of the dusty bluebells,
In and out of the dusty bluebells,
I am your master

Then, the person who is IT stops behind a member of the circle and the circle sings:

Give a little pit-a-pat on her shoulder,
Give a little pit-a-pat on her shoulder,
Give a little pit-a-pat on her shoulder,
I am your master

Whoever has been patted on the shoulder stands behind IT and holds onto their waist.

They then skip in and out of the arches together while the circle sings, with the person behind holding on to the leader's waist.

The chain gets longer and longer until there are not enough people to form the circle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Rumncoke
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 01:03 PM

When this was played in the playground in Barnsley now in South Yorkshire, at the end the leader closed the circle by taking the hand of the girl at the wall so that everyone was facing outwards with arms crossed in front of them, and then whirled the circle around - clockwise, faster and faster until someone lost their grip and that usually resulted in tripping and falling, lots of scraped knees and bruised heads.

I suspect that it might not have been the traditional way of ending the game and that the circling should have been done differently.

In 'the farmer in the dell' the farmer chooses a wife, who then chooses a child, who chooses a dog, who chooses a bone, and then everyone tries to pat the bone. That could get pretty rough too with the poor bone being battered rather than patted.

I think the verses had the big ship sails, rocks, flounders (should be founders I think) on the allie allie oh, then the Captain says this will never never do, then the big ship sinks to the bottom of the sea.

The movements were three steps and a swinging up and lowering of the joined hands

the big ship sails (three steps, turn towards centre of loop)
on the allie allie oh (raise and lower hands, turn to face in direction of travel)
on the allie allie oh (three steps, turn)
the allie allie oh (raise and lower hands, turn)

and so on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 06:37 AM

I heard or read somewhere that it was French in origin - "Illy" was Ile and "o" "eau" .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Maureen Jaeche
Date: 01 Jan 13 - 04:02 AM

I live in Australia, was born in Liverpool UK and stayed there until I was nearly sixteen, am now closer to eighty than seventy, and googled the big ship, to try to find its origins. I'm sure it is an historical reference to the sinking of a sailing ship, but no luck on the origins. The last verse we sang when I was a small child was, We all jump down to the bottom of the sea. Whichever vessel it was, the Atlantic, the alley between the Americas and Britain, would seem to be correct, the date we sang was the 19th of September.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 29 Jul 11 - 05:17 PM

We played 'The big ship sails through the alley alley oh' in Somerset in the 1950s, but no dusty bluebells - our version was 'In and out the windows' but the game was much the same, a ring of children holding up their arms to make arches and one going round, in and out of the arches, but I can't remembered what happened next.
There was also 'The Farmer's in his Den' with one child being the farmer, surrounded by a ring of children singing, followed by 'the farmer wants a wife' (a wife would be chosen from the ring of children, then 'the wife wants a dog' (a 'dog' would be chosen), then 'the dog wants a bone' (a 'bone' would be chosen), and 'we all pat the bone' (the circle breaks up and everyone attempts to pat the child chosen to be the 'bone'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 29 Jul 11 - 04:12 PM

My mother (born in Glasgow in 1911) sang this as "The big ship sailed through the eely ally oh etc." -- and told me it meant the Kiel Canal, which might tie up with another verse she had which was "The Germans sank the Lusitania etc."
Needless to say that verse had disappeared by the time of my playground days in the 1950s!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Janne
Date: 29 Jul 11 - 03:54 PM

I saw the movie "A taste of honey" on Swedish television almost 40 years ago. I don't remember the movie, but "the alley alley oh" song has been stuck in my head ever since. Tonight I got the idea to look it up on the net and found this site.

Wonderful to see this thread stretching out into a third decade!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Sylv
Date: 08 Oct 10 - 01:57 AM

We also sang the big ship sailed through the alley alley oh.....

This was in Glasgow, Scotland in the early 1960´s.

I am now trying to translate the words into Spanish for a children´s spanish/english class.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Angela
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 04:05 PM

We used to play this game and sing the song when I was in primary school in Canada. Far away from the sea, we always played it on the first day of the school year in September.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,ursula
Date: 16 May 10 - 10:33 PM

I am in the USA was born in the uk and am actually a resident of AUS I was looking for the lyrcs of this song as it came to me while I was rocking my baby to sleep. I will definitely teach it to her and the game and who knows where she will take it. I remember playing it in the playground when I was little

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,me
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 11:20 PM

the film was a taste of honey
B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Guest Max
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 06:39 AM

I was just planning my civil ceremony and can't have the date in September I would like, but wanted a memorable one and thought of this song and 'the last day of September' so looked this song up as it sparked some memories.   My wonderful mum taught this to me in the 1960's - 1970's and she was from The Mumbles in Swansea, South Wales. She was born in 1938 and I'm guessing learnt it at school herself in Wales. I'm sure our version went 'the good ship' not the big ship. I can't ask her as sadly she is no longer with us. I think we sang it at school too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Sue
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 01:07 AM

I thnk the dusty bluebells were in fact dusky bluebells which makes more se3nse to an adult although children would be more familiar with the word dusty and probably adopted that as the proper word.
I have taught both this and "the big ship sails through the illy ally oh" to kids in school in Jordan and in Qatar, so its alive and well internationally.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Rescue Shrek
Date: 14 Feb 10 - 09:44 AM

So back to the quesion... Does anyone have the chords for this song? I've been searching every where to no joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Bridget
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 08:36 PM

I am writing a book of my life's experiences and am currently writing about my early days at school in Berkshire. We used to sing this song The big ship sails..... in the plaground with the actions but our manner of the departure of the ship wasn't dated but rather 'The big ship sails through the alley alley oh on a cold and frosty morning.I wanted to check on the rest of the verses so googled the song and was quite taken aback by all the comments.
I suppose by the time the song got down to the south of England it's hardly surprising that the words might have changed slightly. I have been fascinated by everybody's comments. Thankyou so much. By the way I am now living in Australia!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,MargaretS
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 08:07 AM

In the 1950's at school in Bolton, Lancashire we sang:
"The big ship sails through the alley alley Oh ,
The alley alley Oh,
The alley alley Oh.
The big ship sails through the alley alley Oh on the last day of September."
We all held hands in a line with the first child holding his hand against a wall to form an arch. As we sang the line of children moved under the arch as others on here have described. The child nearest the wall would turn around as the line had threaded through so that his arms were crossed in front of him. The line would then go under his arm furthest from the wall and the arm of the child next to him and so on until the whole line had arms crossed in front of them. Then the first and last would join hands and the whole circle would move their folded, joined arms from side to side chanting : "Queen Queen Caroline dipped her hair in turpentine. turpentine to make it shine. Queen Queen Caroline. She went to the river to have a swim and their she met her Uncle Jim. "How do you do! How do you do! and how do you do again!"

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HOLLY, HOLLY, HO
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 10:21 PM

From First Year Music: Rote Songs for Kindergarten and First Year by Hollis Dann (New York: American Book Company, 1914)—where there is a musical score for voice and piano:


THE HOLLY, HOLLY, HO

The big ship sails thro' the Holly, Holly, Ho!
Holly, Holly, Ho! Holly, Holly, Ho!
The big ship sails thro' the Holly, Holly, Ho!
On the last day of December!

Children form a circle, joining hands and singing. One child, representing a ship, runs in and out, stopping at the end, in front of another child. The one chosen now represents the ship. The game may be continued in this way until all have been chosen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Mo the caller
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 05:57 PM

I don't know why you are all claiming it for Liverpool. We certainly sang it (hand against the wall) in London in the 40s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,karrie
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 04:32 PM

My Great Great Great Grandmother had another 2 verses in her journal of the Big ship song.
they were;
The crew got sick on the alley alley o
The alley alley o, the alley alley o,
The crew got sick on the alley alley o,
On the last day of September.

The captain said paint a cross upon the sail,
A cross upon the sail, A cross upon the sail,
The captain said paint a cross upon the sail,
On the last day of September.


Then the it says the next verse as the never never do one!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Skate
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 11:32 PM

Wow - nice to see a thread going for so long. I was at home in Ireland with my young kids, and we were trying to recall the words of this song - so googled it and got this page. Now I can continue the 'bealoideas' with my kids, despite the Liverpool connection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 28 Jun 08 - 03:18 AM

Extra bit:
The Atlantic crossing can be rough, especially in winter, and I've just read a suggestion that the last day of September is about the turn of the weather, so any ship's captain delaying sailing across the Atlantic Ocean until then would be at risk of bad weather, and thus his crew would be more at risk on the crossing.

Gut instinct says it was a sea shanty used to mark time by sailors on rigged trading ships crossing the Atlantic, and taught by old salts to their grandchildren and turned it into a game that may or may not have origins in the rope moving through ship fittings, as a line of children move under the arns of another, echoing the movement of the rope.

And generations later, a child in a dentist unwittingly recalls her genetic origins in song. Nice.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 28 Jun 08 - 03:01 AM

In the dentist's today a (very) young mum had had brought her (I guess) 12 or 18 month old daughter, The little one (not olde enough to talk properly) was happy as larry in the play area pushing a plasic bus round and singing at the top of her voice "big shi ally alley o as ay ast ay ao ep ember"

Mum looked young enough to be my grandaughter and I was fascinated to see our culture so demonstrably being passed through the gerenerations. I learned the song as a child from my mother (a native of Liverpool, and graduate of the university of life) more than sixty years ago.

Looking for the origins of the song I ended up here.

From what I can see it has connections with shipping, and ties in to Liverpool especially, possibly tyneside too. Some associate it with the Manchester ship canal that linkes the cotton industry in Manchester with the sea, and that could be so, regarding the canal as a new form of "alley"

I was interested by the suggestion from martin above that the alleo might be shorthand for the Atlantic Ocean, and for my own contribution, I could easily see it as a shanty used to mark time by sailors working the ropes on rigged ships. Given the connection with Liverpool and the Atlantic, and the references to sinking and drowning, I suspect it pre-dates the ship canal.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Sandra
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 12:24 PM

Does anyone have the chords for this song?

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 04:09 AM

I sort of learned this song from my mum back in the sixties. We were in London, and I think the only link is that the last day of September is my birthday!    As a now longtime resident of Liverpool I'd be interested to know if it is from here!


All the best

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,David
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 12:51 AM

It was the song that introduced the wonderful Tony Richardson film "A Taste of Honey". I had never heard of it until that film and it has been sailing happily around my head on odd occasions ever since

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 11:19 AM

Interestingly, the version round my way as a kid had a different date:

'........on the fourth day of September'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Anne
Date: 19 Jul 07 - 04:56 PM

Evacuated to Penarth we played the alley, alley-o in the playground of
Victoria Girls' School (1940 - 1945) Happy memories! Remember me anyone?
I used to play the hymns in Assembly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Bill,Newfoundland, Canada
Date: 19 May 07 - 07:32 PM

In the 1940s,when I was a child, we played a circle game while singing "The big ship sails through the ILLY ALLIE O. One person would start to weave under the arms of the two people next to him and all other players would follow. When all had weaved through, the leader would reverse the movement and eventually (after a lot of confusion and laughing) the original circle would be reformed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Malcolm on the Wirral
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 06:41 PM

I am sure there is a tie up between the River Mersey and The Manchester Ship Canal and I have heard that the Ally Ally O is where the two join.
It was sung by a childrens' choir as a backing to The 1978 hit by Brian and Michael about L S Lowrie entitled 'Matchstick Mem and Matchstick Cats and Dogs'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Martin
Date: 26 Dec 06 - 04:04 AM

I always thought that the ally O referred to the Atlantic Ocean

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 09:03 AM

Beautiful timing, thread refreshed "On the last day of September"!

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 08:51 AM

"The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea"
Seems to rule out a canal(unless it was after the end of the canal)
My nan (who's family were all either dock workers or in the Merch) always led me to believe it was the Atlantic that was being refered to, I have no proof of this only hearsay of course.
This would also rule out the theory that it is a nonsense song. There seems often to be a rush to assume children's songs are nonsense. However, as we know quite a few are based in fact although using words that MAY not quite make sense.

OB

Subject: Childrens' song or rhym from WW2
From: GUEST,Joy
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 03:22 AM

I was evacuated from London during the War to the Isle of Man and there the children were always singing something like "We don't want to bomb all the bombardies, bomb all the bomardies...etc. We are the King's Navee". As far as I remember it was an endless song and we went through all the Forces.
Anybody remember it ??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 07:16 PM

McGrath

Yes, very probably! I was just speculating that if there were an Irish connection it would be likely to be with "púca", rather than "bogey/boogey".

regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 12:25 PM

In ancient times, a pook was believed a bad spirit. When things went wrong, however, you could save yourself from further exposure to such bad luck by the naming the spirit aloud. Unfortunately, as soon as you opened your mouth to name it, you ran the risk of the spirit entering your body and giving you permanent ill fortune. This could be countered by placing the fingers in the mouth prior to saying the name. Of course, our ancestors were'nt as keen on the anti-bacterial soap as we are, so stuffing filthy fingers in the mouth brought on more bad luck in the form of illness--clever folks they were though, they devised a way to pronounce the word 'pook' and make it sound as though the fingers were in the mouth when in fact they were not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 07:31 AM

Oh Martin what a disapointment. How boring. Thanks though it's as well to know before we start a silly rumour. I've wondered for about 40 years about them.

McGrath, Haven't you watched "Harvey"? I love Harvey! He is a giant rabbit and he calls himself a Pooka. He's not what my Fairies book calls a Pooka, but how can you not believe Jimmy Stewart. My Faerie book says a Phooka/Phouka is a nastier being than a Boogle or Boogie, but it doesn't mention rabbits at all. It is an Irish form of Puck, aparently, and a sort of shaggy ponyish or bovinesque animal.
My Dear one says that in Irish the "h" would not be there and it should be Pooka. Take a look at "Harvey" anyway it's a wonderful film.
                                                    Regards Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 07:12 AM

What about "too flat" and too sharp" as well?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: Hamish
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 07:10 AM

I have been known to steal songs from the Scottish children's act The Singing Kettle. (Don't tell the adults I use 'em on: I don't think they suspect a thing!) and they do a version which includes:

"The big ship sails too high..." (sung falsetto)
"...too low..." (sung basso)
"...too fast..." (um, allegretto)
"...too slow..." (um, slowly)

which is kinda fun with the right sort of attitudes all round

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 06:48 AM

Aren't "pooka" and "bogey" cognate anyway?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Big Ship Sails
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 06:42 AM

OK. Nothing to do with spirits at all!
"Seilide búrca" (various spellings but pronounced roughly: shell-id-eh boork-ah)is an Irish (Gaelic)word for a snail. Because it was used in a children's game at one stage, it still turns up among children bilingually, so to speak.

Regards