> Folk Music > Songs > Maid of Athy

Maid of Athy / Road to Athy / The Kildare Rake

This song plays on an innuendo based on the name of the town of Athy in Co Kildare which is pronounced like “a THIGH”.

James Joyce uses this pronunciation in a riddle in his 1919 book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (p.23–24) and hints at a possible innuendo:

Then he thought for a moment and said:
— You have a queer name, Dedalus, and I have a queer name too, Athy. My name is the name of a town. Your name is like Latin.
Then he asked:
— Are you good at riddles?
Stephen answered:
— Not very good.
Then he said:
— Can you answer me this one? Why is the county of Kildare like the leg of a fellow’s breeches?
Stephen thought what could be the answer and then said:
— I give it up.
— Because there is a thigh in it, he said. Do you see the joke ? Athy is the town in the county Kildare, and a thigh is the other thigh.
— O, I see, Stephen said.
— That’s an old riddle, he said.
After a moment he said:
— I say!
— What? asked Stephen.
— You know, he said, you can ask that riddle another way.
— Can you? said Stephen.
— The same riddle, he said. Do you know the other way to ask it?
— No, said Stephen.
— Can you not think of the other way? he said.
He looked at Stephen over the bedclothes as he spoke. Then he lay back on the pillow and said:
— There is another way but I won’t tell you what it is.

Pete Seeger sang a verse of The Road to Athay on his 1960 Folkways album The Rainbow Quest.

Christy Moore sang Maid of Athy in 1969 on his first album on Mercury Records, Paddy on the Road. He noted:

The Maid of Athy briefly and amusingly relates the winning of a girl’s heart.

The Woods Band played Over the Bar (including Road to Athy) in 1971 on their eponymous album The Woods Band in which Terry Woods sings one verse of Road to Athy.

According to Young Buchan in the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Req: song about ‘a goat becoming a bodhrán’?, Mike Henry used to sing Maid of Athy in the 1970s, with two more verses than Christy Moore.

Michael Quinn from Mullaghbawn, Co. Armagh sang The Kildare Rake in 1979 on his Outlet Archive album Time to Make the Hay. I do not have the album but, according to the description in the Roud Index, his song is quite similar to Mike Henry’s.

Paddy Tunney prints Mick Hernon of Castlecaldwell singing The Rakes of Kildare in his 1979 book The Stone Fiddle, commenting:

When Mick Hernon, still one of Castlecaldwell’s great fiddle-players, was in good spirit and flaking that fine jig, The Rakes of Kildare, he invariably broke into song.

Lyrics

Pete Seeger sings The Road to Athay

As I was going the road to Athay
I saw an old petticoat, hangin’ to dry;
So I took off my britches, and hung them close by,
Just to keep that old petticoat warm.

Christy Moore sings Maid of Athy

She came from the mountains, her stockings were black;
I’d like to be tickling the small of her back.
Oh, she came from the mountains, her stockings were red;
I’d like to be tightening her garters.

(Chorus of mouth music)

Going the road to sweet Athy,
I saw an old petticoat hanging to dry;
Took off my trousers and left them near by
To keep the old petticoat warm.

Maggie O’Brien she said unto me,
“I’ll never get married, no never,” said she.
Now she is happily married to me
And the mother of seventeen children.

Terry Woods sings Road to Athy

As I was a-going the road to Athy
Saw an old petticoat hanging to dry
I took off me old breeches and hung them nearby
To keep the old petticoat warm

Mike Henry sings Maid of Athy

She came from the mountains, her stockings were black;
I’d like to be tickling the small of her back.
She came from the mountains, her stockings were white;
I’d like to be tightening her garters.

(Chorus of mouth music)

While walking the road to sweet Athy,
I saw an old petticoat hanging to dry;
So I took off my trousers and left them near by
To keep the old petticoat warm.

Paddy McCarthy, he had a fine goat.
He tied it up with a rope by the throat.
Along came some fellow and stole off its coat,
And now it’s a bloody great bodhrán.

I met a girl and she was quite fair.
Her only drawback was her surplus of hair.
She came from Athy in the County Kildare,
And she shaved before Mass every Sunday.

Maggie McCarthy she said unto me,
“I never will marry, no never,” said she.
But now she is happily married to me
And the mother of seventeen children.

Mick Hernon sings The Rakes of Kildare

As I was going into the fair of Athy,
I spied an oul’ petticoat hanging up on high.
I took off my trousers and hung them up high
To keep that old petticoat warm

The petticoat fluttered, and made a loud noise,
It lifted its tail and lost feminine poise,
And all round its flounces it wrapped my corduroys.
Old trousers I hope you’re in form.

The night of the wedding, the night of the fun,
The night of the wedding she had a big son.
The father is dead, he was shot with a gun,
And the neighbours maintained ‘twas no harm.