Recognize this tune?

Subject: Lyr Add: AN IRISHMAN'S SHANTY^^
From: NightWing
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 07:40 PM

K: C
M: 6/8
L: 1/8

cGG CGG|cGc fed|eBB EBB|eBe fed|
cGG CGG|cGc fed|ede cfe|cGG G3 |

This is my best guess at the ABC for a tune I've known all my life. (I may not be accurate, because I don't have any musical instrument handy to see correctly which notes are which, but it's close.) I just don't have a NAME for the thing. I think it's a jig (though I don't know a lot about dance styles, so I'm not sure about that).

I know it mostly as the tune to the following words:

O'Leary is dead and O'Riley don't know it.
O'Riley is dead and O'Leary don't know it.
They're both lying dead in the very same bed,
And neither one knows that the other is dead.

Anybody got a clue as to the real name of this tune?

P.S. I hope this comes out looking the way I want it to.

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: Mbo
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 07:44 PM

It's "The Irish Washerwoman."

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 07:57 PM

I was just mentioning this one in the halloween thread! Played the ABC and it doesn't sound quite like the tune I use though. (Although eerily similar.)

I found it in (I think) Maria Leach's book "The Thing at the Foot of the Bed." Where did you learn it?

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: MMario
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 08:33 PM

I learned it as "McTavish is dead" - but yes, the tune is Irish washerwomen - or a close variant.

Subject: Lyr Add: AN IRISHMAN'S SHANTY^^
From: Kara
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 09:46 PM

Mactavish is dead and his brother don't know it
his brother is dead and MacTavish don't know it
they are both of them dead
and they're in the same bed
and not one of them knows that the other is dead

carry on as long as you like adding a new friend of relative of Mac tavish at every verse.
Kara

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: MarkS
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 10:17 PM

Isaac Asimov once wrote a science column on how to pronounce long chemical names.
The example he gave was the compound
"Paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde"
You pronounce the chemical compound to the cadence of "The Irish Washerwoman" and you will be right every time.
Problem is, every time you hear the tune you start singing along with the name of some godawful long chemical compound.
MarkS

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: Kara
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 10:19 PM

Does the Irish washer women work for all compounds or do you have to have a different tune for each one?

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: MarkS
Date: 25 Sep 00 - 10:39 PM

So far have found The Irish Washerwoman to fit. Course I dont know all possible cases, just found enough to be obsessed!

Subject: Lyr Add: AN IRISHMAN'S SHANTY^^
From: Jacob B
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 09:33 AM

To the B music of the tune

McTavish he suffered from chronic arthritis
His brother he suffered from peritonitis
They both of them died and oh my how we cried
For neither one knew that the other had died

Subject: RE: Recognize this tune?
From: NightWing
Date: 26 Sep 00 - 12:09 PM

"The Irish Washerwoman"

THANKS ALL!!!

rabbit, it probably only sounds eerily similar because I was just making my best guess ... IOW, my ABC was *wrong*.

Anybody got the correct ABC for the tune?

And thanks again!

P.S. Where DO you people get these wierd lyrics? *LOL*