Pat Do This, Pat Do That

A local singer Florence Fitzgerald was recorded in September 1950 when she worked at Royal Orchard, which is located at Rockfish Gap on Afton Mountain, Virginia. Among the Irish ballads that she sang for the song-collector, Maud Karpeles, was "Pat Do This."

Here's a little vignette: Florence is standing on the steep mountainside among countless apple trees as she sings the "Pat" verses about Irish immigrants coming over to America and finding work on the railroads.  She is performing a few hundred yards from where, in the 1850s—an entire century earlier—more than 2,000 Irish and 100 enslaved African-Americans laid down the tracks and blasted the four tunnels through the nearly impenetrable green Cacoctin stone.

And here is the chorus of that song :

        Roog sug-aroo, shuga-sugaroo ---

        Sugar in the cream jar, how do you do.

        I'm just on the railroad fod-a-rod-a-ray ---

       Johnny come a-picking on the banjer.

What might seem to be filler nonsense syllables are imitative of the original song words in the Irish language.  "Fee lee me oo ree eye ree ay"  is a phonetic rendering of the original phrase in the Irish language, "Fillfidh mé uair éirithe."  The Gaelic can be translated as "I'll go back, time to get up for work."  

For the inquisitive reader and listener, there are some ways of hearing "Pat Do This."  Click here to hear Cisco Houston "Pat Works on the Railroad".

One can also listen to singer Bob Conroy on the Short Stories and Ould Songs CD (with Norm Pederson).  Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis recorded the song on Old-Time Music on the Air, Volume Two, for the Rounder label.

And the Irish political band, the Wolfe Tones, can also be heard on YouTube. They call the song "Paddy on the Railway."  Their version includes the  "fee lee me oo" chorus and can be heard here

The recording of Florence Fitzgerald's song took place at a point roughly situated between two phenomenal estate houses.  The immense rock castle at Royal Orchard was erected by 1913 by the wealthy Scott family who had connections to County Donegal.  On a nearby peak stands Swannanoa, an Italianate white stone palace put up in 1912 by the equally wealthy Dooley family of Richmond, whose forebears came from Limerick.

Fitzgeralds have lived in Albemarle, Nelson, and Augusta counties since the mid-1700s. Many of them were known locally as singers with mighty repertoires.  The Nelson County Fitzgeralds lived in the Afton Mountain area and the nearby communities of Nash and Beech Grove.  They were mentioned to collectors Karpeles and Cecil Sharp who visited the Blue Ridge in 1916-18.

The collectors heard such songs as  "The Lowlands of Holland" from Philander Fitzgerald,  "The Shooting of His Dear"  (known in Ireland as  "Molly Bhán") from Florence, and  "Shule Aroon" from Napoleon Fitzgerald.  Philander's son Lloyd contributed some songs, and was one of the fiddlers among the local families.

It is intriguing to wonder whether our man Napoleon sang any of the Irish-language words to  "Shule Aroon."  This song dates from the early 1700s; its correct title is "Siúil A Rúin."  There are excellent Irish recordings of this ballad by Mary Black, Ron Kavana, Clannad, Len Graham, and Solas, as well as the US singer Allison Krauss on her recording with The Chieftains.  The usual American version is often called   "Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier."

by Kevin Donleavy

Comments from  Dan Milner and Bob Conroy were helpful for this article, as was language research from Daniel Cassidy.