Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'

Subject: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,Dunkle
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 08:40 AM

I have an old family document dated March 17 09 - St. Patrick's Day - in which a great uncle refers to "that good old Song that has cheered the hearts of your forbears for years past"; one line of the song is quoted: "Oirland was Oirland when England was a (can't read it)". Is there anyone who can help me track this song down? Best, Don Houghton

Subject: RE: Help: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 01:36 PM

"Ireland was Ireland when England was a pup
Ireland will be Ireland when England's time is up" ?
I don't know who coined the phrase nor whether it's part of a longer verse

Subject: RE: Help: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: TheOldMole
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 02:22 PM

The way I heard it, from an old 50s folkie named Jimmy Gavin (anyone remember him)?

Now here's to good St. Patrick who by strategy and stealth
Drove all the saints from Ireland, here's a bumper to his health
But not too many bumpers, or we'll lose our heads and then
We'll forget the good St. Patrick, and see the snakes again

Now Ireland was Ireland when England was a pup
And Ireland will be Ireland, we'll lick those muckers up,
I'm a good old Roman Catholic, I go to church each Mass,
But ye lousy British Protestants can kiss me Irish ass.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 08:02 PM

I searched for this in Google Books, and I found several books that quote a couple of lines, but nothing more than that. Sometimes they called it an "old song."


Variations include:

"Ireland was a nation when…"
"…when England's broken up."
"…when England's buggered up."
"…when England's beggared up." (I assume that's a euphemism.)

"Ireland was Ireland when England was not much,
And Ireland will be Ireland when England is Dutch." (from 1914)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 11:04 PM

The way I heard it was:

Ireland was Ireland when England was a pup,
Ireland will be Ireland, when England's broken up.
I am the best damn Catholic that ever when to Mass,
And every Limey sonofabitch can kiss my Irish ass.

*Sigh* Just gets you right in the ol' pump, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 09 Dec 17 - 12:07 PM

Ireland was Ireland when England was a pup
Ireland was Ireland b’fore the crown had been thought up
??????????????
So come all ye limey bastards and kiss my Irish ass

Does anyone have any more of these lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 11 Dec 17 - 09:52 AM

I think that St Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland rather than the saints… or maybe not…

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 12 Dec 17 - 02:14 AM

Incidentally, Americans may not know this, but spelling Ireland as 'Oirland' and Irish as 'Oirish' is a sneering British thing, mocking what our accent sounds like to them, and also suggesting that Ireland isn't (they wish!) a 'real' country.

This song, whose first verse or perhaps chorus is occasionally quoted in old books, seems to have sunk without trace, and from the sound of it that's no harm!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,pauperback
Date: 12 Dec 17 - 09:03 AM

This whole business of 'kiss my Irish ass' has me a bit puzzled.

It seems so haughty, flying in the face of something you'd be better off not too.

For example after 9/11 and the hero-ication of the NYFD there was some type of a televised memorial event when a large red-faced (seemed drank to me) man in a dress fireman's uninform was making a speech which he ended with "they can kiss my royal Irish ass!"

I was a little taken aback and wrote it off to East Coast hijinks until a day or two later a jet airliner dropped right into his neighborhood.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Dec 21 - 10:37 PM

My dad taught me this song when I was a kid and I just came across the lyrics today. His version goes "When Ireland was Ireland, England was just a pup, and Ireland will still be Ireland when England's number's up. Oh I'm an Irish Catholic and I go to Sunday mass, and any limey son of a bitch can kiss my Irish ass"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: Felipa
Date: 07 Dec 21 - 07:08 AM

Don't forget that there are and have been Irish nationalists who were not Catholic. That's a horrible verse. But the spelling "oirland" does infer that the rhyme is actually mocking, is a slur on the Irish - some of whom didn't get the joke? Like others, I only knew the lines, spoken, about Ireland being Ireland when England was a pup.

re pauperback, the kiss my ass phrase could be taken from "póg mo thóin" though I think the Irish is a translation of the English rather than the other way around. If so, it's not a great translation as that word for buttocks is not considered rude. It is rude only in the context of póg/kiss!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Dec 21 - 08:44 AM

"Kiss my [whatever] ass" suggests that this song is American. Wouldn't be singing it myself, anyway, if I could sing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,DRB
Date: 16 Apr 22 - 06:44 PM

Ireland was Ireland when England was pup
And Ireland 'ill be Ireland when England's busted up
And any limey son of a B that gives me any sass
Can pucker up his rosey lips and kiss me Irish arse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: GUEST,Henry Donnelly
Date: 09 Jul 22 - 10:10 AM

Ireland be Ireland when england was a pup. Ireland be Ireland when england never grew up. I was brought up Roman Catholic and on Sundays I go to Mass so take that you jig key bastards and kiss my Irish ---.

Subject: 'Ireland was Ireland when England was a Pup'
From: and e
Date: 13 Jan 23 - 04:56 PM

From pg 6 of the Hubert Canfield Collection. Dated ca 1926.

IRISH FAVORITE DITTY

For Ireland was Ireland when England was a pup,
And Ireland will be Ireland when England's gobbled up,
So get down upon your bloody knees upon the bloomin' grass,
And stick your dirty English face right up my Irish ass.

See here: https://archive.org/details/1926canfieldcollection/page/n5/mode/2up

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oirland was Oirland...'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Jan 23 - 06:13 PM

I don’t think anyone in Ireland would be likely to say "limey".