Finnegan's Wake
Traditional
- Written by
- [Traditional]
- Publication date
- 1864
- Language
- English
- Comments
- Traditional Irish-American comic ballad, first published in New York in 1864. In the ballad, the hod-carrier Tim Finnegan, born "with a love for the liquor", falls from a ladder, breaks his skull, and is thought to be dead. The mourners at his wake become rowdy, and spill whiskey over Finnegan's corpse, causing him to come back to life and join in the celebrations. Whiskey causes both Finnegan's fall and his resurrection. The song is famous for providing the basis of James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake (1939).
- Licensing
- Request a synchronization license