[Ads-l] Limerick song, 1875

[Stephen Goranson]

Thank you, Jonathan!

This does not come up on the lesser Duke U version of newspapers.com, so I
assume it is from the personal subscription version.
I have a thick paper file on the subject. I'll have to check, but this one,
unless I forgot, is new to me.
Though the song lyrics are not explicitly given, that it reportedly annoyed
the fellow who "comes up from Limerick" is strongly suggestive.
And in the US rather than the UK!
Nothing against England, my birthplace, but this apparently adds to the
case for US provenance, from the Civil War phrase to the later (?) game
song.
Thanks again.
If anyone can email me a scan of the article and the date/title page, I
would be quite grateful.
Maybe we should write about this somewhere.

Stephen Goranson
goransonsc (at) gmail.com
or, still (annual-renewed) guest retired status:
goranson (at) duke.edu


On Sun, Sep 7, 2025 at 9:51 AM Jonathan Lighter <
00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Too good to be true? Maybe not.
>
> 1866 _The Bulletin_ (Norwich, Conn.) (Nov. 8) 2 [Newspapers.com]:  ROW ON
> THE PROVIDENCE ROAD. - On the old Providence pike Tuesday night Pat
> McNamara was wending his weary way homeward, when in passing the suburban
> residence of Pat Divine it came over him that he had an old grudge against
> Pat and to express his opinion of him, he commenced a "Limerick song." As
> Divine...comes up from Limerick, this made him mad, and he went out and
> expressed his opinion to that bloody boy McNamara....McNamara was found
> guilty of a breach of peace and was fined $2 and costs."
>
>  JL
>
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 10:24 AM Stephen Goranson <
> 0000179d4093b2d6-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > I had thought to present the "come to Limerick" (settle, come to terms)
> > uses that are associated with the US Civil War, starting shortly before
> the
> > shooting began, but there are too many to fit into a post. For starters,
> > all three examples in HDAS are directly connected to that Civil War,
> using
> > Limerick as a treaty reference to an earlier war in Ireland. And many
> more
> > could be cited.
> > So I'm flummoxed that Bob Turvey's new book, Why Are Limericks Called
> > Limericks?, denies any connection to what he calls the "Williamite War"
> of
> > William and Mary!
> >
> > The relationship of this phrase to the later-attested game is not yet
> > fully documented. I think the game started in the US; Turvey thinks it
> > started in England.
> >
> > Here's a potential antedating of the song—in the US. (The song may have
> > existed before the game.)
> > Sept. 2, 1875 (newspapers.com), The Jeffersonian, Stroudsburg, Monroe.
> > PA, page 2/1
> >
> > It is very "onpleasant" for a young man to fall over wheel-barrows, milk
> > pots, slop buckets, &c., when trying to steal an interview with his
> > sweetheart. He took it good naturedly, however, for he came out singing,
> > "O, won't you come down to Limerick."
> >
> > Stephen Goranson
> >
> > Background, "Limerick Poems and Civil Wars"
> > https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31647
> >
> > My view on a different linguistic battleground:
> > "What, Exactly, Did Josephus Write About Jesus? (That Is, If He Did
> > Mention Jesus)"
> >
> >
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> > [
> >
> https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpiJUgsAU6Why4RnDJF_Kf1MVDvERfTRo4MjShG7ultrS21cITRMXrOn8UpVPIfFnduEf3c6haOVX2r1s95Db62m0w-ogcHcazNIeLGtmjn3SBysuvB_yFdBHcYOJQo0U_pO5IvmwOpIPxqphu-ECgrSaREUk5CwVLAujyscKz3cmR5BXVD8AFEA/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/61hWjaliweL.jpg
> > ]<
> >
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> > >
> > NT Blog: What, Exactly, Did Josephus Write About Jesus? Guest Post by
> > Stephen Goranson - ntweblog.blogspot.com<
> >
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> > >
> > Two new books address this question, whether Flavius Josephus, who wrote
> > Antiquities of the Jews, or Judean Antiquities, in about the year 94 of
> the
> > first century CE, mentioned Jesus of Nazareth.This most famous portion of
> > his book eventually came to be called the Testimonium Flavianum, often
> > abbreviated as the TF.Both books conclude that Josephus did indeed
> mention
> > this Jesus, though they ...
> > ntweblog.blogspot.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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