There once was a man named Michael Finnegan.
He grew whiskers on his chinnigan.The wind came out and blew them in again.Poor old Michael Finnegan. (begin again!)
What are the origins of this song? What is the story? Like many songs of this type, the origins are hazy and the story is mostly supposition. Let's see what we can do.
First World War
There is some evidence to suggest that there was an Irish soldier named "Michael Finnegan" who served with the British Army in World War I, who sported a beard, and about whom the following song was sung:
Poor old Michael Finnegan,He grew whiskers on his chinnigan.Shaved them off and they grew in again,And that's the end of poor Michael Finnegan.
This song is quoted in "Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914–1918" by John Brophy and Eric Partridge, published by The Scholatis Press, London, 1930.
The four lines of this simple stanza all rhyme, although this involves distorting the normal pronunciation of the end of the third line and the addition of the fictitious "-nigan" to the end of the word "chin" at the end of the second line. It is from these features that the song derives its humour.
It seems that this song caught on, and was repeated and altered over time to become a "repetitive song" sung with and by children.
Repetitive song
A repetitive song has a structure in which a large portion of the words remain constant each time the main stanza is repeated with small parts changing each time. Common examples of repetitive songs include:
- There's a hole in my bucket
- What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
- Ten green bottles
- If you're happy and you know it
The form in which "Michael Finnegan" gained popularity as a repetitive song began with a stanza somewhat like the following:
There once was a man named Michael Finnegan.He grew whiskers on his chinnigan.The wind came out and blew them in again.Poor old Michael Finnegan. (begin again!)
This verse appears in "The Oxford Song Book", volume 2, collected and arranged by Thomas Wood, published by Oxford University Press, London, 1927.
After singing this verse, the linking phrase "begin again!" would lead to the next verse which would be the same in the first and last line but a different incident would be inserted into the middle two lines. For example:
There once was a man named Michael Finnegan.He went fishing with a pinnigin.He caught a fish but he dropped it in again.Poor old Michael Finnegan. (begin again!)
Note that the second line again features a fictitious "-nigin" on the word "pin". Additional humour is provided by the absurdity of the scene described: a pin would hardly be ideal fishing equipment! Here's another example which adds the "-nigin" on both lines:
There once was a man named Michael Finnegan.Climbed a tree and barked his shinnigin.Took off several yards of skinnigin.Poor old Michael Finnegan. (begin again!)
Some of the extra verses can make play on the structure of the song itself:
There once was a man named Michael Finnegan.He grew fat and then grew thin again.Then he died and had to begin again.Poor old Michael Finnegan. (begin again!)
These examples of extra verses are given in "Merry Ditties", edited by Norman Cazden, published by Bonanza Books, New York, 1958.
The general pattern with children's repetitive songs is that they proceed with each person in turn contributing a new verse, either a verse previously learned or devised which hasn't yet been sung this time around, or a verse extemporised to fit the repetitive pattern. A common way to bring the song "Michael Finnegan" to an end is to repeat the opening stanza but this time conclude it with:
Poor old Michael Finnegan. (STOP!)
Melody
The melody used for this song varies slightly, but most forms are similar to the following:
Further reading
Repetitive song on wikipedia.
