An Irish Fifer

"This reminds me of another instance of mistaking a simple prescription. My father was in his early days very fond of theatricals, and one day in Dublin he recognised a countryman, named Shelburne, who lived near Drumcar, a lame man, who had been shot through the thigh by one Hughey Meleady, a tenant of my father's, while stealing yarn which had been put out to bleach; he had also filled the proud position of a fifer to the 'Defenders,' during the rebellion of '98. Of course he was hard up, so my father helped him, and, moreover, gave him money to get a ticket for the theatre, and an extra coin to buy oranges, which were always industriously sucked by the audience during the performance. As it so happened, Shelburne could not get oranges, having been rather late, so the next best thing would be lemons, which he sucked unceasingly till the curtain fell."

From Random Stories, Chiefly Irish, by Major H. S. M'Clintock, published in Belfast by Marcus Ward & Company, in the late Nineteenth Century.

Other pages featuring Irish music and dance