Now, Patsy Byrne may brag about the hat his father wore,
Indeed it was a gay caubeen in the merry days of yore;
But now it's a little bit out of date so let me tell you that,
It wouldn't hold a candle to me old Skellara hat.
It was worn by me father at the dances and the fairs,
Where all the boys and pretty girls were sure to be all there;
It was built a hundred years ago, and devil the work he's at,
A regular lady dazzler was me old Skellara hat.
As I was walkin' down the road, the royal house to see,
Sure all the boys and pretty girls kept callin' after me:
"There goes the Duke of Charoseberg, and he's an aristocrat!"
But the boys they didn't know me in me old Skellara hat.
It was worn by me father at the dances and the fairs,
Where all the boys and pretty girls were sure to be all there;
It was built a hundred years ago, and devil the work he's at,
A regular lady dazzler was me old Skellara hat.
Met the Queen of England a week ago today,
She took me warmly by the hand, she asked me in for tea,
"Now, Pat," says she, "I'm glad to see you're lookin' so fine and fat."
But all the while she was lookin' at me old Skellara hat.
Sure, it was worn by me father at the dances and the fairs,
Where all the boys and pretty girls were sure to be all there;
It was built a hundred years ago, and devil the work he's at,
A regular lady dazzler was me old Skellara hat.
It was worn by me father at the dances and the fairs,
Where all the boys and pretty girls were sure to be all there;
It was built a hundred years ago, and devil the work he's at,
A regular lady dazzler was....
A regular lady dazzler was....
A regular lady dazzler was.... me old Skellara hat.
####.... Variant of a traditional Irish ditty, Me Auld Scalara (or Skillara) Hat ....####
Recorded by Shanneyganock (Shanneyganock VII, trk#2, 2009, published by Shanneyganock, produced by Jason Whelan and recorded at Great Big Studio, St. John's, NL).
From Wikipedia: Caubeen - (pronounced kaub-'een) from the Irish cáibín meaning little hat, an Irish soldier's headdress, a variation on the beret or tam o'shanter. It is taken from the traditional Irish peasants' headdress. It is very high on the off-side (usually the left), which makes it resemble a tilted rimless Balmoral bonnet. It sometimes has narrow black tapes in its edge to secure it; these are worn neatly tied in the back. The Canadian version is made with wide tapes.
The YouTube variant below features a variant recorded as Me Auld Skellara Hat by St. John's brewery worker John White [1930-1998] who perfomed the song here and there on the Saturday Nite Jamboree, one of the most popular live music shows on Newfoundland radio. Produced at CBN in St. John's and carried on the Newfoundland Regional Network of the CBC from 1958 to 1969, the program featured well-known local entertainers in a fast-paced, light-hearted format deftly held together by its genial, wisecracking host Harry Brown. (Saturday Nite Jamboree On CBC Newfoundland : Two classic radio shows hosted by Harry Brown, Program Two, trk#8, 2007, remastered and made publicly available for the first time by the Research Centre for Music, Media and Place at Memorial University, St. John's, distibuted by Landwash Music.) John White had learned Skellara Hat from the McNulty Family (Twelve Authentic Irish Folk Songs, Standard Colonial Records, late 1950s to early 1960s, Woburn, Massachusetts). John White also recorded the song in 1968 for Island Records.
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