The Devil and the Bailiff (Traditional - Roud

Описание: I learned this song from the recording taken by Sean O'Boyle and Peter Kennedy in 1952 in Garrison, Co. Fermanagh from Michael Gallagher (1891-?) of Co. Donegal (VOTP23), an uncle of Paddy Tunney. Some of the Irish words (“gosson”, “bonham/banbh”) are unknown to American listeners, so I usually translate them (“young boy”, “piglet”) unless I am singing in Ireland. Although this sacrifices some of the charm of the original language, I decided that for this song it was more important that the audience should understand the meaning of the words, so they wouldn’t miss the overall wit of the narrative. My other changes are incidental: where Michael sings “one was as black as the other” and others sing “as foul as the other” I paraphrased as “one was as vile as the other”. Also instead of “rattled a stone at his heels” I usually sing “shook her two fists at his heels”.

More About the Song
This song pokes fun at folk superstitions, such as that speaking the name of the Devil could summon him (hence the saying, “speak of the Devil!”); and that cursing “may the Devil take you” could entitle or invoke the Devil to do just that. The Bailiff would be, I presume, a collector of rents from Irish agrarian tenants on behalf of British absentee landlords, a situation that was the cause of much unrest in the 1870s-90s. The song has been attributed to Cathal McGarvey of Ramelton, Donegal (1866-1927), author of “Star of the County Down” and founder of An Stad in Dublin; but this attribution is not very well established. The only field recordings I know of were obtained from members of the Gallagher/Tunney families, and the 1952 recording from which I learned it is the oldest documented source for it I have found so far. So I don’t know how broadly distributed it was in oral tradition, nor have I found it as a broadsheet or music hall song.