Come In Dungannon ...

Subject: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,Aidan Crossey
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:49 AM

My dad had a catchphrase he used to mutter occasionally, usually when in his cups. "Come in Dungannon, I know your knock!"

Anybody got any clues as to where he may have got this from?

My uncle had a catchphrase he used to use. "Go on donkey. It's only the ignorant Bay ones and they know no better!" He has explained the provenance of that one to me.

... Aidan Crossey

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 02:10 PM

The "Croppy Boy" lies in Dungannon. Any help?

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Mooh
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:45 PM

There's also a Dungannon In Huron County Ontario (Canada). A village on County Road 1, just a few miles from where the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival takes place. Great area for transplanted names, lots of "Kin..." names.

Any other Dungannons?

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 05:21 PM

Sinsull

That one's Duncannon, in County Wexford, I think.

As to the phrase - sounds like the Eurovision Song Contest to me! Aidan; where was your father from (ugh! such English!).

Regards

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 05:46 PM

Lurgan, County Armagh (townland, Derrymacash, hence the name I've assumed now that I'm registered as a mudcat member rather than a guest).

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Brendy
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 09:48 PM

Come in Dungannon, I know your knock!

B.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,Aidan Crossey
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 07:35 AM

(Guesting cos I'm using my work internet account!)

I'm in and I'll just stand by the fire a coupla minutes, if yez don't mind. It's a wet oul' night out there and my coat's lettin' in. If it wasn't for the sheugh in my ass, I'd be drownded!

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Jawbone
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 08:40 AM

There is a Dungannon in Co Tyrone near where I live It means the Fort of Gannon.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,Aidan Crossey
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 08:52 AM

That's the Dungannon to which my da was referring.

The phrase probably came from some drunken conversation.

I don't know Dungannon that well - spent one drunken evening in a wee pub there (McGrath's?) where my sister was playing with her two-piece cabaret outfit. Followed on from an earlier all-afternoon barbecue in Lurgan. Myself and my uncle Henry and my ma went along for the crack. My ma got a bit worried when I decided to sing "The Oul' Orange Flute", which I thought was apt, given that we were in Dungannon. Can't remember too much else about the night given that it was the end of a long, hard day's drinking. (Something which doesn't feature as highly on my list of priorities these days as it once did!)

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: belfast
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 12:14 PM

I'm refreshing this thread on the off-chance that someone might yet come up with an answer to the question about the origins of this catchphrase. I've heard it all my life but nobody seems to know what it means.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 01:04 PM

The origins of this catch-phrase goes back to a Radio "soap" from the old BBC Northern Ireland Home Service in the late 1940s, the Programme was "The McCooeys" by Joe Tomelty.
A loud knock on the door by a country friend was greeted by Bobby Greer[Joe Tomelty], with a loud shout of "come in Dungannon, I know your knock".
Joe Tomelty wrote the script for this popular Belfast "soap", the catch-phrase was part of Tomelltys appeal, he had a pronounced lisp and he would have invited his guests to" slup up yer sloup there more in the slausepan".
Tomelty acted in "Odd man out" with James Mason, "The Sound Barrier" etc.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: David Ingerson
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 01:53 PM

Thanks, ard mhacha, for the difinitive info! What a great "place" Mudcat is.

Just a side note about Dungannon. My great-great-great grandfather was born "in Dungannon" but when I did a bit of research there a while back, I found 4 nested Dungannons. The townland of Dungannon, the larger parish of Dungannon, both within the modern city of Dungannon, which is in the old barony of Dungannon. I never did find out which Dungannon he was born in--or his birth record, for that matter.

David Ingerson

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: belfast
Date: 10 Mar 03 - 03:01 PM

Thank you, Ard Mhacha. I actually recall "the McCooey's", but I hadn't realised that that was the origin of the phrase. Ah well, I was very very young. And I was very slightly acquainted with Joe Tomelty - but so was everyone else in this city. A fine man.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 09:57 AM

As a wee aside, Joe Tomelty was from Portaferry. His tenor brother Peter Tomelty sang for us all at the mudcat gathering in Portaferry a couple of weekends ago.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:07 AM

Overheard at the boating lake:
"Come in Number 61 your time's up"
"But we've only got twenty boats!"
"Number 19 are you having problems?"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,John Moulden being puzzled
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:20 AM

I'm surprised at Ard Macha's explanation, partly because it's my impression that I heard it before I heard to McCooeys, partly because, while the phrase is in The Concise Ulster Dictionary, there is no explanation bar that it's a catch-phrase. However, equally surprising is that it's not given in John J Marshall's 1931 compilation Popular Rhymes and Sayings of Ireland.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 10:52 AM

John I wouldn`t argue the point with you, but most oul hands I have asked have attributed it to "The McCooeys",.
We can always hold on and maybe someone will explain the origin.
And yes FibulA, Peter Tomelty has a fine Tenor voice, I have a few recordings of him on a compilation LP, Circa 1960s.

Bye the way Fibula maybe Peter Tomelty could give us the answer to "Come in Dungannon". Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 11 Mar 03 - 11:14 AM

For a few more snippets of information on "The McCooeys" and Joseph Tomelty, tap them in on GOOGLE. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 08:36 AM

Old threads never die, eh!

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: Jimmy C
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 12:48 PM

I also have often heard and used thisparticular expression, but I don't know the origin or the date. I remember listening to the McCooeys won radio, way before we got television. At a hurling game once up in the Glens of Antrim we jokingly referred to the local team as "Culshees " and they responded by calling anyone from Belfast a McCooey. Will check on some sources near Dungannon to find out more.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 01:25 PM

The Signature tune was the Belfast street song,"My Aunt Jane", the Cast included, James Young the Belfast Comedian as, Derek the window cleaner, JG Devlin,Mina Dornan, Elizabeth Begley, and Joe Tomelty as Bobby Greer, the lisping sage, the man with an answer to everything.
The oul memory is returning,the McOooeys ran from 1948 until 1954. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 01:29 PM

So is the "Dungannon" in this phrase a person? Or a place? If a person, do they mean someone whose name IS Dungannon, or a person from Dungannon would is called, like a slang term, a "Dungannon"? What would be recognizable about the knock?

~S~

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 02:02 PM

The man who knocked the door was from the town of Dungannon in the County Tyrone.
In those days long before thuggery appeared on our streets the doors of the houses in the streets were unlocked, so oul Bobby Greer would hail the visitor with"Come in Dungannon, I know your knock"

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 03:32 PM

So... it means, whoever you are, come on in, because if you are from here (apparently I live in DG too?), I either know you well and you are welcome in my home... or I know no one from here is a danger to me or mine"? Like if I were from Corning and someone knocked, I'd say "Come in Corning, I know yer knock"? Like we say here in this situation, "The door is open"?

~S~

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: belfast
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 07:45 AM

Another line or catchphrase from the J G Devlin character has come into my head - "Let the hare sit". Damned if I know what it means.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 02:03 PM

Belfast, "Let the Hare sit" easy enough for any oul countryman, houl on and see what the outcome is. All politicans would be very aware of this sound advice. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: gnu
Date: 14 Mar 03 - 02:57 PM

I thought it was "Death", the Grim Reaper, referring to the number of rebels hanged there. My father uttered this when tipsy (what am I saying ? no such thing as tipsy amongst my crowd... drunk) and dying. More of a challenge than a capitulation.

Subject: RE: Come In Dungannon ...
From: GUEST,"Come up Dungannon.."
Date: 07 May 03 - 05:35 PM

My grandfather was born and raised in the Dungannon area before emigrating to the US in 1910. His children remembered him reciting...

"Come up Dungannon for I know your knock
afore you break the knocker with your knocking
on the old back door."