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Finnegan's Wake

"Finnegan's Wake" is a song, called a street ballad, that arose perhaps in the 1850s. It is one of several mock-Irish stage songs that were very popular in 19th-century American vaudeville. It is famous for being the basis of James Joyce's masterwork, Finnegans Wake, where the comic resurrection becomes symbolic of a universal cycle of life. Whiskey, which brought both Finnegan's fall and his resurrection, is derived from Irish uisce beatha (IPA: [ˈiʃkʲə ˈbʲahə]), meaning "water of life." So too, the word "wake" is both of a passing and of a new rising. Joyce removed the apostrophe in the title to assert an active process in which a multiplicity of "Finnegans," that is, all of us, wake, that is, arise after falling. It also featured as the climax of the primary storyline in Philip José Farmer's award-winning novella, Riders of the Purple Wage.

Lyrics

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street¹
A gentleman, Irish, mighty odd;
He had a brogue both rich and sweet
And to rise in the world he carried a hod.
Now Tim had a sort of the tipplin' way
With a love of the whiskey he was born
And to help him on with his work each day
He'd a "drop of the cray-thur" every morn.

Chorus: Whack fol the darn O, dance to your partner
Whirl the floor, your trotters shake;
Wasn't it the truth I told you
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake!

One mornin' Tim was feelin' full
His head was heavy which made him shake;
He fell from the ladder and broke his skull
And they carried him home his corpse to wake.
They rolled him up in a nice clean sheet
And laid him out upon the bed,
A gallon of whiskey at his feet
And a barrel of porter at his head.

Chorus

His friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch,
First they brought in tay and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch.
Biddy O'Brien began to bawl
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?
"O Tim, mavourneen², why did you die?"
"Arragh, hold your gob" said Paddy McGhee!

Chorus

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job
"O Biddy," says she, "You're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy she gave her a belt in the gob
And left her sprawlin' on the floor.
And then the war did soon engage
'Twas woman to woman and man to man,
Shillelagh law was all the rage
And a row and a ruction soon began.

Chorus

Then Mickey Maloney ducked his head
When a noggin of whiskey flew at him,
It missed, and falling on the bed
The liquor scattered over Tim!
The corpse revives! See how he rises!
Tim Finnegan rising from the bed,
Says, "Whirl your whiskey around like blazes
Thanum an Dhul³! Do you thunk I'm dead?"

Chorus

¹ Actually located in Kilkenny City, not Dublin City as one might assume. Now called Friary Street. [1] ² Irish: mo mhuirnín, "my darling"
³ Short for "In the ainm an Diabhal" (Irish for "In the name of the devil". "Be the thunderin' Jaysus" is sometimes used instead.