Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Irish Washerwoman

I am continuing to work on my index to all of Isaac Asimov's essays, and in so doing I came across his introduction to You, Too, Can Speak Gaelic, in which he says:

"He sang it to the tune of The Irish WAsherwoman.

If you don't know the tune of The Irish Washerwoman, all I can say is that it is an Irish jig; in fact, it is the Irish jig, if you heard it, you would know it. I venture to say that if you know only one Irish jig, or if you try to make up an Irish jig, that's the one.

So I went to YouTube and sought it out, found it, listened to it, and indeed recognized that I'd heard it before.



Where I've heard it before I couldn't say. Perhaps only as early as a few months, when I went to Busch Gardens with my sister, her hubby and their son, and sat in the Irish section listening to some fiddlers while they went through a ride which I didn't want to go on...

But I'd probably heard it before that... I've been to England a few times, albeit many years ago, and may have heard it then, or on any one of innumerable TV shows.

Anyway, it was a hoot that I recognized the tune, and thought I'd share it here.

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