Lyr Req: The Ballyhooley Blue Ribbon Army

Subject: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: GUEST,fogie
Date: 01 Mar 03 - 05:58 PM

does anyone know the words to this,I heard Sara Gray sing it about 30 years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: The Pooka
Date: 01 Mar 03 - 06:30 PM

I do not. / But I heard that one member got sick and the other one wouldn't march alone. / Sorry :) my will is weak...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 03 - 11:09 AM

You can find webpages & contact info for Sara by going to the BRITISH Google (www.google.co.uk), asking it to search only UK sites, and typing in Sara Grey (note spelling). I did a couple of nice blue clickies but my computer ate them when I tried to revise the text at preview stage. But Google's easy enough. Why not just write and ask her direct? She's very nice -

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: nutty
Date: 02 Mar 03 - 01:45 PM

Its been recorded by Margaret MacArthur .... details can be found here

CLICK

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: fogie
Date: 03 Mar 03 - 06:47 AM

Thank you for your help, Fogie for Caro.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 05:04 PM

I've heard one called "The King of Ballyhooley" - but not this one.

Regards

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLYHOOLEY BLUE RIBBON ARMY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 12:00 AM

Lyrics copied from http://www.maydayclub.net/songbook/ballyhoo.txt

THE BALLYHOOLEY BLUE RIBBON ARMY

There's a dashing sort of boy who is called his mother's joy,
For his ructions and his elements they charm me.
He takes the chief command in a water-drinking band
Called the Ballyhooley Blue Ribbon Army.
The ladies all declare he's the pride of every fair,
And he bears the patriotic name of Dooley.
When the temperance brigade go out upon parade,
Faith, there's not a sober man in Ballyhooley.

CHORUS: Whilli loo hi hoo! Let us all enlist, you know,
For their ructions and their elements they charm me.
We don't care what we ate, if we drank our whiskey nate,
In the Ballyhooley Blue Ribbon Army.

When we're out upon patrol and we're under his control,
We take, of course, a most extended radius.
Although it's very clear, we drink only ginger beer.
We find the drinking sometimes rather tedious.
The polis one fine day, faith, they chanced to come our way,
And they said we were behaving most unruly.
When the sergeant he did state that we were not walking straight,
Faith, we stretched him for a corpse in Ballyhooley.

Then before the magistrate, every one of us did state
That we had taken nothing that could injure.
And as it's very clear, we drink only ginger beer,
There must have been some stingo in the ginger.
Some of us did own we were drinking zoedone,
But the polis was behaving most unruly.
It was all of no avail, and within the county jail
Lies the temperance brigade of Ballyhooley.

There's a moral to my song, and it won't detain ye long:
Give up strong drink of every description.
And as it's very clear, ye may tire of ginger beer,
I'll give you all a temperance prescription:
First, the sugar you have got, then the water boilin' hot,
And the lemon, faith, you'll find I'm speaking truly--
And the way you'd sprinkle salt, toss a glass or two of malt.
Faith, they call it lemonade in Ballyhooley.

As you've kindly said "encore", faith, well, here's a trifle more:
One mornin' patriotic Captain Dooley,
Oh, looking so gay and nice with his nightcap full of ice,
Appears upon parade in Ballyhooley.
Says he, "Boys, do not think that my headache's caused through drink,
And to prove to ye that I'm speakin' truly,
Just to show I'm not afraid, produce the lemonade.
Begorra, we'll have another at Ballyhooley.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: temperance brigade of ballyhooly?
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 05:35 PM

see also The King of Ballyhooley in the DT
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6530

There's also a historical song Ráiseanna Bhaile Áth' Úla, Races of Ballyhooley, not at all funny and not about drink, published in Donal O'Sullivan,Songs of the Irish.Cork: Mercier, 1981 (first edition 1960)

would you have imagined the place name means 'the ford of of the apples'? Bh'l Áth' Úla sounds like 'Bla Hoola'

maybe the apples and distillery themes are related, or maybe the songsters just like the sound of "Ballyhooley"