Lyr Req: Irish Name Song? / Dear Old Donegal

16 May 98 - 12:01 PM (#28514)
Subject: Irish Name Song
From: Kathleen Capkanis

I've been looking for the lyrics of a song that my Grand Mother Sadie used to sing. I always called it the Irish Name Song because it's loaded with Irish Names. It's about a man who goes to America and makes his fortune, when he gets back to Ireland he meats up with all his relatives again and their names start flying out a mile a minute.

Can anyone help me with the title and lyrics to this song?

Kathleen

---

16 May 98 - 12:29 PM (#28517)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: leprechaun

Sounds like "Dear Old Donegal." I have a Bing Crosby version on vinyl.

---

16 May 98 - 12:32 PM (#28518)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: leprechaun

Sounds like "Dear Old Donegal." I have a Bing Crosby version on vinyl.

---

16 May 98 - 01:05 PM (#28520)
Subject: Lyr Add: DEAR OLD DONEGAL
From: Alice

Hi. I thought this would be in the database, but my searches there were futile. It is also sung by a resident of Butte, on the recent PBS video, Long Journey Home, The Irish in America. I see that while I was searching the Bing Crosby lyrics site, Leprechaun, too, was posting about Bing.

Dear Old Donegal

(aka Back to Donegal)

It seems like only yesterday I sailed from out of Cork.
A wanderer from Erin's isle, I landed in New York.
There wasn't a soul to greet me there, a stranger on your shore,
But Irish luck was with me here, and riches came galore.
And now that I'm going back again to dear old Erin's isle,
My friends will meet me on the pier and greet me with a smile.
Their faces, sure, I've almost forgot, I've been so long away,
But me mother will introduce them all and this to me will say:

CHORUS: Shake hands with your Uncle Mike, me boy, And here is your sister, Kate.
And there's the girl you used to swing down by the garden gate.
Shake hands with all of the neighbours, and kiss the colleens all;
You're as welcome as the flowers in May to dear old Donegal.

They'll give a party when I go home, They'll come from near and far.
They'll line the roads for miles and miles with Irish jauntin' cars.
The spirits'll flow and we'll be gay, we'll fill your hearts with joy.
The piper'll play an Irish reel to greet the Yankee boy.
We'll dance and sing the whole night long, such fun as never seen.
The lads'll be decked in corduroy, the colleens wearin' green.
There'll be thousands there that I never saw, I've been so long away,
But me mother will introduce them all and this to me will say:

(chorus)

Meet Branigan, Fannigan, Milligan, Gilligan, Duffy, McCuffy, Malachy, Mahone,
Rafferty, Lafferty, Donnelly, Connelly, Dooley, O'Hooley, Muldowney, Malone,
Madigan, Cadigan, Lanihan, Flanihan, Fagan, O'Hagan, O'Hoolihan, Flynn,
Shanihan, Manihan, Fogarty, Hogarty, Kelly, O'Kelly, McGuinness, McGuinn.

(chorus)

words & music: Steve Graham
Copyright: @1942 Leeds Music Corp. New York
(probably an earlier @ somewhere)
Published: Leeds 40 Hits of our Time
Transcribed: Dilly

Alice in Montana

---

16 May 98 - 01:11 PM (#28521)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: Alice

By the Way, the lyrics I found above were on the International Lyrics Server, which is in the Mudcat links list. Searching with the words 'Dear Old Donegal', it came up with the lyrics as recorded by Bing Crosby.

alice

---

19 May 98 - 07:01 PM (#28756)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: Darin McGrew

For what it's worth, Alan Sherman filked this song on one of his albums. The lyrics for his version are at <http://php.indiana.edu/~jbmorris/LYRICS/sherman.folksinger.html#2>.

---

22 May 98 - 06:06 PM (#29021)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: Bill D

*grin*...it is getting harder & harder to find songs that have not already been asked about....my wife started this thread awhile back...it has some comments and other such...

Folks, do try searching the FORUM as well as the database, you might save some time and effort...this has been going for 1½ years now, and we have done some songs 3 or 4 times...I have mentioned to Max that we need a reminder somewhere on the forum page about efficient use of this amazing resource...maybe it is time to jog his memory...

---

07 Mar 02 - 09:36 AM (#664159)
Subject: Lyr Add: SHAKE HANDS WITH YOUR UNCLE MAX (Sherman)
From: Jim Dixon

Here's the parody that Darin McGrew mentioned above, copied from the web site he linked to:

SHAKE HANDS WITH YOUR UNCLE MAX
(Words, Allan Sherman. Tune, "Dear Old Donegal")

I sell a line of plastics
And I travel on the road,
And I have a case of samples
Which, believe me, is a load.

Every night a strange café,
A strange hotel, and then
Early in the morning
I am on the road again.

When the season's over
And my lonesome journey ends,
That's the only time I see
My family and my friends.

I drive up Ocean Parkway
And, before I stop the car,
My ma leans out the window
And she hollers, "Here we are!"

"Shake hands with your Uncle Max, my boy,
And here is your sister Shirl,
And here is your cousin Isabel--
That's Irving's oldest girl.

"And you remember the Tishman twins,
Gerald and Jerome.
We all came out to greet you
And to wish you welcome home.

"Meet...
Merowitz, Berowitz, Handelman, Schandelman,
Sperber and Gerber and Steiner and Stone,
Boskowitz, Lubowitz, Aaronson, Baronson,
Kleinman and Feinman and Freidman and Cohen.

"Smallowitz, Wallowitz, Tidelbaum, Mandelbaum,
Levin, Levinsky, Levine and Levi,
Brumburger, Schlumburger, Minkus and Pinkus,
And Stein with an "e-i" and Styne with a "y."

"Shake hands with your Uncle Sol, mein boy,
And here is your brother Sid,
And here is your cousin Yetta
Who expects another kid.

"Whenever you're on the road, my boy,
Wherever you may roam,
We'll all be here when you come back
To wish you welcome home."

---

08 Mar 02 - 06:27 AM (#664923)
Subject: RE: Irish Name Song
From: GUEST,Roger O'Keeeffe

There's a similar catalogue of names in "Bould O'Donoghue" which was recorded by the Clancy brothers in their heyday. Always meant to learn it, but then I took the easy option and bought a tin whistle so that I wouldn't have to learn any words at all. Thirty years later I'm still grinding away at the uilleann pipes and will never be any good at those either.

---

18 Dec 07 - 03:04 PM (#2218336)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Name Song
From: GUEST,Big Al

I had a friend who sang a parody of Dear Old Donegal, but in the parody they were all Portuguese names. Anyone heard or know where the lyrics can be found for that version?

---

19 Dec 07 - 12:23 PM (#2219012)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Name Song
From: ard mhacha

For what it`s worth, in the Irish surnames in the song Dear old Donegal, Malachy is included in the list of surnames, it is unknown as a surname, but common enough as a forename.

---

22 Oct 17 - 04:54 AM (#3883818)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Name Song? / Dear Old Donegal
From: GUEST,Stevethegas

I have searched the web in vain for the song of which you speak.
But scratching the grey matter I recall something like this:_

I took my wife to Ireland,
About a year ago.
And there we had our first born,
We named him as you know.
We took him to the clergyman,
And everything went alright,
Until he asked for the baby's name,
And she shouted with all her might.

"His name is Michael Rafferty Hoolahan Doyle,
Docherty, Doran, Murphy, Moran,
Kensit Harrigan Barrigan (something)
Bond, Duke, Killarney, Burke,
Finnegan, Kenny, O'Shea,
McGregor, McGuire, McKirk, McIntyre,
McGinnis, McGillis, McGee

Not heard it for 60 yrs, but I think that's the one you seek.
Maybe someone else can fill in the blank!
Steve

---

25 Oct 17 - 07:09 PM (#3884653)
Subject: Lyr Add: BACK TO DONEGAL (Dennis Day)
From: Jim Dixon

Another version. You can hear it here. I have boldfaced the words that are different from the lyrics already posted above.


BACK TO DONEGAL
As recorded by Dennis Day with Charles Dant and His Orchestra, 1946.

It seems like only yesterday I left the port o' Cork,
And on a ship from old Erin's isle, I landed in New York.
Without a friend to meet me there, and a stranger on the shore,
I wore an honest Irish heart and fortune came galore.

So here I am, going back to dear old Erin's isle.
The friends they'll meet me on the pier and they'll greet me with a smile.
There are faces there that I surely forget, for I was so long away,
But me mother will introduce them all and this to me will say:

CHORUS: Shake hands with your Uncle Mike, me boy; shake hands with your sister Kate;
And here is the girl you used to swing down by the garden gate.
Shake hands with all the neighbours, and kiss the colleens all.
You're as welcome as the flowers of May to dear old Donegal.

They'll give a party when I get back, and they'll come from near and far.
They'll line the roads for miles and miles with Irish jaunting cars.
The spirits'll flow and we'll all be gay, and we'll fill our hearts with joy.
The piper'll play an Irish reel to greet the Yankee boy.

For tomorrow off to the church I'll go and wedded I will be
To my pretty little colleen bawn, sweet Biddy McGee,
For Biddy was true and faithful to her Dinny o'er the sea.
We'll join the harp and shamrock to the stars of liberty.

There'll come Branigan, Flanagan, Milligan, Gilligan, Duffy, McCuffy, Malarkey, Mahone,
Rafferty, Lafferty, Donnelly, Connelly, Dooley, O'Dooley, Muldowney, Malone,
Rattigan, Cadigan, Lanihan, Flanihan, Fagan, O'Hagan, O'Hoolihan, Flynn,
Shanahan, Lanahan, Hogarty, Fogarty, Kelly, O'Kelly, Shapiro (sic), McGinn.

CHORUS: Then I'll shake the hand of me Uncle Mike, the hand o' me sister, Kate.
I'll hug and squeeze as much as I please the girl by the garden gate.
I'll invite all the neighbours to my weddin', great and small;
Then I'll live content and pay no rent in dear old Donegal.

---