Singing to the walls_03 The Aul' stick

The Aul' stick. My bit of a stick. The Darling old stick. These were the varied titles I found for this ballad of epic measures. I was first introduced to the song by a friend of mine Kayne Coy, who sent me a video of Barry Gleeson singing it at the Inishowen festival in 1996.

Up to then I hadn't come across any songs quite like it. It contains some very graphic, but somewhat comical, depictions of what I can only refer to as 'ultra violence'. My understanding is that the 'stick' is the beloved shillelagh; the fabled weapon of choice in Irish fighting history. This weapon is quite enigmatic. It's evolution is somewhat vague and though the Irish shillelagh has now become a regular, twee ornament to be found in gift shops, its primary use and design were to inflict damage. In 'The Aul Stick' we are told how often the stick 'broke bridges of noses' and 'made bits of skull fly about in the air'. The Shillelagh becomes almost like the central character in this story of free wheeling escapade, romance, drunkenness and manslaughter. Descriptions of the violence are not shied away from. An eye is 'plucked' or 'pushed' out. A man is beaten until he is 'black' and later dies from his injuries. And of course there are the phallic undertones of the stick when 'Dear Kate took a fancy to me self and me bit of a stick'.

On doing some further reading about gang culture in 18th century Ireland I discovered that there was apparently a tradition of organised fights by different 'factions' that could take place at market events or on days of celebration in Ireland. Whether this practice is mythologised to some extent I am not so sure. Some writers claim that reports of these fighting events were proliferated mainly by members of the British ruling class in an attempt to further the imagery of Irish hooligan savagery.

'The Aul stick' is one of those songs for which I couldn't find a lot of information. Gleeson states it is found in James N. Healy's book. Healy was a writer and actor from Cork who founded a company known as 'The Southern Theatre Group' and was also an avid collector of traditional ballads. A version was also to be found in the Sam Collins Songster (c1859) in which we discover the protagonists full name to be 'Bould Morgan Mc Carthy from Trim'.

Ballads like these can remind us how rich and often wayward the tradition of song can be. To my mind they are important pieces of literature. A brawl on St. Patricks day in Athboy, Co. Meath is elevated to a legend of heroic proportions. It reads like a comical but dark appropriation of a tale we might find in The Tain saga.