3. He’s Gone on to Glory

Micho got this song from the late Pack McMahon of Kilshanny and says it is also sung by Joe Conneely from the same area, a singer with a fine store of songs whom Micho holds in very high regard.
The reference to Margate in the first verse probably indicates that this song is of English music-hall origin. The fad for being buried alive for extended periods for a bet or to break a record is one which comes around again every few years. The most celebrated organiser of such events recently was the Kerryman ‘Butty’ Sugrue who put on such burials in the grounds of his pub, ‘The Wellington’ in Shepherd’s Bush. Butty’s own speciality was pulling double-decker buses with his teeth!

1
Ah, come listen while I sing of a very funny thing
That happened Timmy Magee:
He went one day to Mar(a)gate
To swim in the briny sea.
The weather bein’ damp he said he would have a gamp
- What a very silly thing to do -
He jumped in and the water caught the brim
And off to the skies he flew!

Chorus
He’s gone on to glory, he’s gone flip-flop,
He’s gone on to glory and he’s just wiped off the map.
They’re searching, they’re searching near and far
They’re searching for Magee, he’s gone (to) Fiji
And they don’t know where he are.

2
Oh, little Billy Prance swore in a trance
He’d die for a thousand pounds.
The bet was made and Billy was laid
Underneath the ground.
For six long months he lay there
In the new grave that they laid him
But when they went to dig him up
They did not know where they laid him!

Chorus
So, he’s gone on to glory, he’s gone flip-flop,
He’s gone on to glory and he’s just wiped off the map.
They’re searching, they’re searching near and far,
They’re searching silly but they can’t find Billy
For they don’t know where he are.

3
Tim Magee was an engineer,
He drove the Scotch Express,
Sez Tim: “Bedad, I’d feel very glad
If I could win that race.
So off he went at a hundred miles an hour.
Timmy would be first.
Ten to one it would have been,
But the bloomin’ boiler burst!

Chorus
He’s gone on to glory, he’s gone flip-flop,
He’s gone on to glory and he’s just wiped off the map.
They’re searching, they’re searching near and far
They’re searching for Magee, he’s gone (to) Fiji
And they don’t know where he are.

4
Micheal McGannon heard of a cannon
That could fire a thousand tons,
“Bedad,” says he, “I’ll go and see
That mighty gun.
So off he went one fine day
He did not know the cannon was loaded:
He stepped aside to light his pipe
And the cannon it exploded!

Chorus
And he’s gone on to glory, he’s gone flip-flop,
He’s gone on to glory and he’s just wiped off the map.
They’re searching, they’re searching near and far,
They’re searching for McGannon who exploded the cannon
And they don’t know where he are.