Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be a Gentleman?

Subject: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: Brakn
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 07:31 AM

Anyone got this from the early 1900s?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 12:55 PM

It's in one of James N Healy's books - which I don't have to hand at the moment. I'll dig it out if it doesn't appear here soon.

Incidentally, it's listed in several American collections of Irish songs - including one dating to the 1870's.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: Brakn
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 01:56 PM

Thanks Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 02:40 PM

See also Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Why can't Paddy be a gentleman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 03:52 PM

Ha! Thank you Malcolm. As I read the text in the Bodleian image, I kept hearing a voice declaiming it! I've heard it done as a recitation, sometime in the last year - at a session County CLare, if memory serves. That's why the title rang a bell...

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: Brakn
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 03:53 PM

Thanks Malcolm.

Subject: Lyr Req: WHY CAN'T PADDY BE A GENTLEMAN?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Apr 05 - 09:50 PM

From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, 2806 b.11(213).

WHY CAN'T PADDY BE A GENTLEMAN

Being told Pat couldn't be a gentleman, I've set myself the task
That tonight the reason why of you my friends [I] would ask.
Hasn't Ireland got her colleges that have for centuries stood
To teach the people? And you know their teaching's mighty good.
Haven't Irishmen got heads and hearts? By dad, I know they've so.
Then why can't Paddy be a gentleman? That's what I want to know.

CHORUS: Why can't Paddy be a gentleman, a gentleman, a gentleman?
Why can't Paddy be a gentleman? That's what I want to know.

Some look down on an Irishman as if they thought that we
Could naught but helpless dolts or fools e'er have a hope to be.
What matter where a man is born? I see in Erin's Isle
Are lots of native gentlemen to greet you with a smile.
There are other kinds of gentlefolks besides a dandy beau.
Then why can't Paddy be a gentleman? That's what I want to know.

You cannot give the reason. I see it in your phiz
That Paddy's not a gentleman because you know he is.
He's always good to help a friend, although his means are scant,
And if he's fond of blarney, he hates deceit and cant.
His coat may be of common frieze. His heart won't freeze, oh, no!
Then why can't Paddy be a gentleman? That's what I want to know.

If an Englishman's a gentleman, oh worrah, then it's true:
As Pat is John Bull's brother, then he must be one too.
Just read the Irish history, and in that same you'll find
Great deeds of Irish gentlemen. St. Patrick's one, d'ye mind?
And don't forget this, who sneer at honest Paddy's worth:
That actions make the gentleman, no matter what the birth.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Why Can't Paddy Be A Gentleman?
From: Brakn
Date: 09 Apr 05 - 09:35 AM

Thanks for taking the time to do that Jim.