(Tim) Finnegan’s Wake

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About the Song:

“Tim Finnegan’s Wake” is, despite it’s relatively constant popularity since its first extant publishing in 1859-60, a ballad with less than a concrete history. The earliest known publishing was by H. De Marsan in New York on a broadside titled “Tim Finigan’s Wake” set to the air “The French Musician”. It’s unknown if this air is or is related to the melody common today. No musical credits are given. While a year isn’t included on this broadside, Paul Charosh notes in his American Music article “Studying Ninteenth-Century Popular Song” that De Marsan was only active at that address during the aforementioned time span.

A possibly, although unlikely, earlier publishing is that done by John J. Daly in New York, titled “Finigan’s Wake” (without an apostrophe on the title page, but one is included on the next page). Curiously, while the sheet music itself lists 1864 as the publishing year, the cover page, as well as Johns Hopkins University, say 1854. No author is credited, but John Durnal is listed as the arranger.  Brendan Ward argues in his article “Finnegan’s Wake – Origins” that 1864 is the more likely date, as Durnal’s other published works, both in the Hathi Trust Digital Library and the Library of Congress, fall between 1863-67.

A second publication from 1864, this time by William A. Pond & Co, also in New York, says that the song was popularized by Dan Bryant, born Dan O’Niell, of the Bryant’s Minstrels, a popular black face minstrel group that primarily performed in New York City.

One person who is often credited with authorship is John F. Poole, a Dublin native born in either 1833 or ‘35 that immigrated to the US at 12 years old. It wouldn’t be until 1863 that he would break out into the scene as a prolific song and comedic skit writer. His most popular work (confidently credited to him) is the protest song “No Irish Need Apply”. It wouldn’t be until 1867 that this song, this time titled “Tim Finigan’s Wake”, would be published attributing Poole as the author. He allegedly wrote the lyrics for Tony Pastor, an extremely successful impresario and performer, oft called “The Father of Vaudeville.” Poole, coincidentally enough, also died after falling from a ladder. It seems unlikely that Poole actually wrote the song. It was missing in the 1864 edition of Tony Pastor’s Complete Budget of Comic Songs, which was edited by Poole. It was, however, included in the 1867 edition of Tony Pastor’s Book of 600 Comic Songs.

It is also possible that “Finnegan’s Wake” is a re-write of an older song. Dublin-born actor and writer John Brougham’s “A Fine Ould Irish Gintleman” includes a verse about a man being revived through the power of whiskey. This song was, in turn, a parody of the older “The Fine Old English Gentleman”, a very successful song from 1835 written by Henry Russell. Several parodies of this song existed, typically replacing “English” with various groups and demographics. Parodying this song was popular enough that even Charles Dickens gave it a stab with his “The Fine Old English Gentleman, New Version“. All of these songs have their roots in the 17th century ballad, “The Queen’s Old Courtier“.

The ballad retained cultural relevance through the 20th century thanks to recordings by Irish music legends The Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. More recently, the song found success in the repertoire of the Boston-based Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys. Elsewhere in popular culture, it provided the inspiration for Irish novelist and poet James Joyce’s final work, Finnegans Wake (intentionally without the apostrophe, implying a plurality of Finnegan and his experience, present in everybody’s life). Released in 1939, it maintains a reputation for being one of the most difficult pieces of fiction in the Western canon. Joyce uses Finnegan and whiskey, also called “the water of life,” as a metaphor for the universal cycle of life, with whiskey being both the cause of death and resurrection.

Breakdown of Hiberno-English and Irish phrases-

• brogue (an Irish or Scots accent)
• hod (a tool for carrying bricks, also slang for a tankard)
• tippler (drunkard)
• craythur (Poitín, anglicized as poteen and also referred to as mountian dew, is a traditional Irish distilled spirit made with cereals, grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses and potatoes)
• Whack fol the dah (a lilted phrase, with lilting being a traditional Irish form of mouth music similar to scat singing)
• trotters (feet)
• full (drunk)
• mavourneen (my darling)
• hould your gob (shut up)
• belt in the gob (punch in the mouth)
• shillelagh law (a brawl)
• ruction (a fight)
• bedad (a shocked expression)
• Thanam ‘on dhoul (anglicized spelling of the Irish “D’anam ‘on diabhal,” or, “your soul to the devil”)