"Down Went McGinty" (sometimes referred to as "Down Went Dan McGinty"[1] and "Down Went M'Ginty")[2] is an 1889 song written by Joseph Flynn.[3] It was first performed by Flynn and his partner Frank Sheridan, at Hyde and Behman's Theater in Brooklyn.[4] The lyrics depict the misadventures of a stereotypically "naive and pugnacious"[5] Irishman named Dan McGinty; the last verse describes his suicide by drowning: "Down went McGinty / to the bottom of the sea".
Film historian Jeff Jaeckle has described McGinty's actions as "conform(ing) to contemporaneous anti-Irish prejudice".[6]
- ^ Down Went McGinty, at The Traditional Ballad Index Version 4.5, compiled by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle; at California State University, Fresno; retrieved April 26, 2019
- ^ Sheet Music Holdings at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library; retrieved April 26, 2019
- ^ “Trying to Raise McGinty from the Bottom of the Sea”, at Harper's Weekly Explore History; retrieved April 26, 2019
- ^ Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America, p. 1013, entry 'Sheridan & Flynn'; by Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly; published 2007 by Psychology Press
- ^ Sigmund Spaeth, in Read 'em and Weep, pp. 151-52, as cited in "Our Landlady" by L. Frank Baum (glossary by Nancy Tystad Koupal; published 1996 by University of Nebraska Press)
- ^ ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges, by Jeff Jaeckle, published 2015 by Edinburgh University Press