Rocking the Cradle that Nobody Owns

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  • Teideal (Title): Rocking the Cradle that Nobody Owns.
  • Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): none.
  • Uimhir Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann (National Folklore of Ireland Number): none.
  • Uimhir Roud (Roud Number): 357.
  • Uimhir Laws (Laws Number): none.
  • Uimhir Child (Child Number): none.
  • Cnuasach (Collection): George MacIntyre.
  • Teanga na Croímhíre (Core-Item Language): English.
  • Catagóir (Category): song.
  • Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
  • Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): George Mac Intyre.
  • Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): 1964 – 1965.
  • Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): Clydebank, Scotland.
  • Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): private.
  • Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
  • Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.

Now you’re getting onto something now! Of course I sure that there’s many men wheeling a pram, too, that maybe doesn’t own what’s inside the pram, you know. And at the time I’m talking about, there was no prams, there was only cradles. And it’s something like the old man with no faloorum. He knew there was somebody else taking a bit out of his cake! And he was left to rock the cradle, you see. And you know when an old man is rocking the cradle, and he’s watching the door, and his wife is out jumping around – that’s an awful dose, that. The small fellow in the cradle couldn’t care two hoots – he’d be doing the same thing himself when he grows up.1

I am an old man, I’m rocking the cradle
Rocking the cradle that nobody owns.
I’m here all alone, I’m rocking the cradle,
Rocking the baby that’s never my own.

Oh, hush, hush, hushaby baby
Perhaps your own daddy you never will know!
I’m here all alone, I’m rocking the cradle
Rocking the cradle that nobody owns.

My wife is a flirt who married for money,
She stays out all night until the cock crows.
Take warning, dear Harry, if you ever marry,
Be sure that the cradle you rock is your own.

Hushaby lu, hushaby baby,
Perhaps your own daddy you never will know.
I’m here all alone, rocking the cradle,
Rocking the baby that’s never me own.

Notes

1. Audio for this passage is not currently provided, as the recording quality is very poor, and the song that follows is fragmentary.

In his comprehensive review of the CD The Road from Conamara (2000), the late Tom Munnelly observed that ‘there were a number of versions [of this song] being sung around folk clubs at the time of this recording. Hazarding a guess, I would think it likely he got it from Séamus Ennis (who got it from Johnny Doherty). Whatever his source, he has made the song his own. The pensive delivery conjures up a vivid word picture of a side of cuckoldry which is light years away from the ribald ballads often associated with the subject’ .

The air to this song is the same as that of another lullaby Joe recorded, ‘Seoithín Seo-hó.’

We are greatful to Geordie Mac Intyre, for permission to include this item.