Pat of Mullingar

Also known as:

• Man from Mullingar
• Paddy Mulligan

Einführung

Author Anonymous, from the area north of Mullingar

This rebel song has been sung and recorded by many different folk artists. Some of the more famous personalities who recorded this story of bygone troubled times are as follows:

• The Irish Rovers,
• Derek Warfield,
• The Wolfe Tones

Before becoming "a rebel" (a term he detested) he learned his trade with the army. Paddy Mulligan, being a wanted man by the British, stayed briefly with different families, in different areas north of Mullingar, from the townsland of Balaknock to Commerstown pivoting much around Castlepollard and Collinstown .
During his young life he was a blacksmith, later becoming an auto-mechanic. He was not a tall or an imposing figure; a proud humble man, slow to anger, seldom if ever finding the need to raise his voice, and never to swear or to take the lord's name in vain. (Saints were fair game though). He was proud of four accomplishments in his life; his wife Kathleen and their marriage, his grandchildren, finally getting an education, and being a fly fisherman. He led by example!

Full name: Patrick Thomas Mulligan
Profession: Blacksmith
Surviving relatives: Two Grandchildren, Meaghre & Duirmaid aka "Paddy"

Lyrics

You may talk and sing and boast about your Peelers and your clans,
And how the boys from County Cork beat up the Black and Tan.
But I know a little codger who came out without a scar.
His name is Paddy Mulligan, the man from Mullingar.

The Peelers chased him out of Connemara,
For beatin' up the valiant Dan O'Hara.
And when he came to Ballymore, he stole the Parson's car,
And he sold it to the Bishop in the town of Castlegar.
Seven hundred Peelers couldn't match him.
The Chieftain paid the army for to catch him.
And when he came to Dublin Town, he stole an armoured car
And sold it to the IRA brigade in Mullingar.

Well the Peelers got their orders to suppress the man on sight.
So they sent for reinforcements through the county left and right.
Three thousand men surrounded him, they hunted near and far.
But he was with the IRA brigade in Johnson's motorcar.

The Peelers chased him out of Connemara,
For beatin' up the valiant Dan O'Hara.
And when he came to Ballymore, he stole the Parson's car,
And he sold it to the Bishop in the town of Castlegar.
Seven hundred Peelers couldn't match him.
The Chieftain paid the army for to catch him.
And when he came to Dublin Town, he stole an armoured car
And sold it to the IRA brigade in Mullingar.

They came with tanks and armoured cars, they came with all their might.
Them Peelers never counted on old Paddy's dynamite.
On the fourteenth day of April, well he blew them to July.
And the name of Paddy Mulligan took half of Ireland's pride.

• Protest song
• Royal Irish Constabulary, also known as Peelers

References

• Mr. James Mc Guinness Lough-Park, Castlepollard.
• Mr. Seamus Ward Senior, Lough-Park, Castlepollard.
• Mr. Peter Merryman, Castlepollard.