17 March 1968
Trad. arr: O’Casey, says the writing credit on this record, and that is indeed the iconic Dublin playwright Seán O’Casey entering Irish Number Ones stage left. When Jack Clitheroe sings 19th century folk ballad ‘Maggie’ to his wife in The Plough And The Stars, he changes it to her name – Nora. For some reason, perhaps an idea of it being even folksier and more Irish-sounding, that’s what Johnny McEvoy goes with too. And that’s how one of the most celebrated figures in Irish literature, hot off the Irish Writers tea-towel in Carroll’s Irish Gifts, has a writing credit on an Irish number one single. Sorry, Maggies.
Whatever name you go with, this song’s simpering dreariness has wafted up from Ireland’s nexus of cabaret, light entertainment, folk balladry and country & Irish for decades now. I have nothing personal against Johnny McEvoy, Seán O’Casey, or the Noras and Maggies in your life, but you all could have picked something that sounds more agreeable, like a car alarm. People of Ireland, you have disgraced yourselves again.
Irish Number Ones 