"This cheery version of a classic I got from the singing of Mairead Lynch. Kate Crossan sings it as “Siuil a Ghrá” on her album “Away” - Rita Gallagher.
Photo Credit: © Colm Keating Photography 2023

The Linnet of the Bluestacks

Siuil A Ruin

Siuil A Ruin (Rita Gallagher)

Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake (Cáit Ní Shúilleabháin)

The Price of the Pig written by Tim Lyons (Cáit Ní Shúilleabháin)

In the year twenty-nine, when the weather was fine
Oh, I straight took me way to the sweet fair of Trim
For to sell a swine it was my design
She was plump fat and fair and complete in each limb
The swine was as mild as a lamb or a child
You could whip her all over the globe with a twig.
And the truth for to tell I sold her right well
Three-ten was the price that I got for my pig.
With me toor-an-i-ahdee-dee, toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee,
toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee, fon-dee-dee-i.

Clapped the cash to me thigh and a glass to me eye,
To the streets I did fly like a sporting young buck,
When a sporting young dame that belonged to the game,
Oh, she up to me came to be sure for good luck,
She gave me the wink to go in for a drink,
She inveigled me then to dance Phoebe’s
It was at the wheel round that she slipped her hand down,
And she left me quite scarce of the price of me pig
With me toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee-etc.

Like a man in despair when I missed me share
I went tearing me hair seeking her up and down
Each corner and lane. But it was all in vain
Sure a sprig of the damsel could never be found
To Navan next day I straight took my way,
For I heard people say of a fair being in Trim
Oh, but when I went there I was loaded with care
You might think that I just had my walk, oh, in vain.
Oh the first to roll in was Tatter Jack Flynn,
We danced a few steps of a nice double jig
Thinking bye and bye that I’d cast me eye
Oh the jade that robbed me of the price of my pig
With me toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee-etc.

Oh, be Tara, be Screen, be the bog of Armeen,
Be Paddy McGee, be the high hill of Howth,
Be the church, be the bells, be Paddy McKells’
To swear any more do you know that I’m loth.
If the Lord of Mayo he but heard of me woe
Well I’m sure he would come in a chaise or a gig
And search Ireland round till that jade would be found
And he’d clap her in pound for the price of me pig
With me toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee-etc.

Ah, well, now since its so sure its homewards I’ll go,
My shuttle I’ll throw, and from drink I’ll refrain,
I’ll stick to me loom while youth’s in its bloom
And I’ll never be caught by a trup in a game.
Let me turn what I will, I surely will all kill
And I’ll have the best action of Salvary’s will
And for her transaction I’ll have satisfaction
I’ll tramp her jade bones for the price of me pig
With me toor-an-i-ahdee-dee, toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee,
toor-an-i-ah-dee-dee, fon-dee-dee-i.

Fleadh Songs

The Price of the Pig

The Price of My Pig (Cáit Ní Shúilleabháin)

78rpm Disc: Paddy Killoran's Irish American Serenaders: A Little Dash of Dublin (song)

This recording by one of Paddy Killoran's ensembles features Irish tenor and saxophonist Jack Healy. The song was included in the 1935 film "Peg of Old Drury," a biopic of Irish actress and socialite, Peg Woffington. The film itself was a hit in the UK and the States.

Like several of the other Irish American Serenaders' song recordings, a long instrumental intro starts the arrangement until the vocals appear around the 1 minute, 9 second mark. Such arrangements may have been used by groups like Killoran's to play for American dancing in the New York dance halls of the day. The disc label categorizes the song as a Fox Trot (Foxtrot), the most popular fast dance from the 1910s through the 1940s.

"A Little Dash of Dublin" was published in sheet music format in 1945 by The Cinephonic Music Co. in London.

Recorded in 1937 and released on the Decca label ( 12116 A). From the Ted McGraw Collection, McGraw 78 01-165.

Siuil A Ruin (Rita Gallagher)

Irish Traditional Singing

Related tracks