Paddy Ryan's Dream

See also #342

Same as the Scottish tune "Miss Lyall"

There is a story that goes with this tune (from Ted Furey):

Paddy Ryan was the son of a widow who lived in the Midlands. He had a dream

that he went to Dublin, and that he walked to and fro on the bridge without

stopping, and that he found his fortune there. He told this strange dream

to his mother, who sold her only cow, and said: "Padraig, go to Dublin and

see about your dream."

So Paddy went on the train to Dublin, and there he marched up and down on

O'Connell Bridge. He hardly had any money left, but after a while he met a

neighbour from home, who said: "What are you doing here, Paddy? Have you

come to Dublin?". "Well," said Paddy, "I had this funny dream three nights

in a row that I should find my fortune here on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin."

"Well," said the neighbour, "that's strange. I also had a dream three nights

in a row that there was a crock of gold buried at the back of your garden,

under a gooseberry bush."

"Oh, I don't believe that", said Paddy. But that night he took the train

back to where his mother lived in County Offaly, and he said: "Mother, find

me a spade", and started digging under the gooseberry bushes in the garden,

and it was true. Under the last one, which was all dry and nearly dead, he

found three crocks full of gold.

So Paddy and his mother could buy a lot of cows and build a new house, so

wasn't it true that he found his fortune marching up and down O'Connell

Bridge in Dublin?