The Auld Triangle
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"The Auld Triangle" is a song written by Brendan Behan, which is featured in his play The Quare Fellow. It is used to introduce the play, a story about the occurrences in a prison (in real life Mountjoy Prison where Behan had once been lodged) the day a convict is set to be executed. The song has also become known as "The Banks of the Royal Canal."
The song has taken on a sort of life of its own and has gone beyond its status of a song in a play, developing into a modern Irish anthem. Musical groups as diverse as The Dubliners, The Pogues, The Doug Anthony Allstars and, most recently, Dropkick Murphys, have covered the song. An unusual live version, recorded at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, appears on the live debut album The Dawning of the Day by Dublin based pipe band St. Lawrence O' Toole. It is important to note that, as with many Irish ballads, the lyrics have been changed with each passing cover. For example, the Murphys' cover condenses the structure into a three-lyric section song with a chorus based on the last two lines of each stanza in the original.
Bob Dylan and The Band also recorded a rendition of the song during their famed Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. This recording is widely available via bootleg. It has also been recorded by Bert Jansch and appears on his 2006 album The Black Swan. The song has also been recorded by Jeff Tweedy on his tour dvd Sunken Treasure, and sung live by the Oysterband: it appears on their now-deleted 'Alive and Acoustic' recording.
The original lyrics from the The Quare Fellow are:
A hungry feeling, came o'er me stealing
And the mice were squealing in my prison cell
And the old triangle, went jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
To begin the morning, the warder bawling
Get out of bed and clean up your cell
And that old triangle went jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
The screw was peeping, the lag was sleeping
While he lay there weeping for the girl Sal
And the old triangle went jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
On a fine spring evening, the lag lay dreaming
The seagulls wheeling high above the wall
And that old triangle went jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
The day was dying and the wind was sighing
As I lay crying in my prison cell
And that old triangle, went jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
In the female prison there are seventy women
I wish it was with them that I did dwell
Then that old triangle could jingle jangle
Along the banks of the Royal Canal.
