Saint Patrick's Day Favorite Irish-American Drinking Songs Quiz

Take this St. Patrick's Day quiz to test your knowledge of Irish-American drinking songs.

Q: In a favorite variation of the song, "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be" that has become a St. Patrick's Day favorite, what is the matter?

A. Seven old ladies were locked in the lavatory from Sunday to Saturday and nobody knew they were there.

Q: Who wrote the "Unicorn Song," signature sound of the Irish Rovers?

A. Children's author, cartoonist, musician and playwright Shel Silverstein.

Q: "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"

A: Faith and begorrah, why it was Mrs. Murphy herself who did the laundry earlier in the day and forget to take them out of the pot!

Q: In the Dublin street ballad "Tim Finnegan's Wake," what happens as the result of a brawl during the wake?

A: Whisky scatters over the "deceased" Tim and revives him.

Q: What did the "Wild Rover" spend all his money on for many a year?

A: Whiskey and beer.

Q: How did Uncle Pat break his neck in "Another Irish Drinking Song?"

A: Slippin' on a bar of Irish Spring.

Q: The last two verses of "Seven Drunken Nights" are seldom sung in public due to their risqué content. In the song's final verse, what did the singer see when he came home on Sunday?

A: "I saw a thing in her thing where my old thing should be."

Q: Who is Charlie Mops?

A: Charlie Mops is the fictional creator of beer, celebrated in "Beer, Beer, Beer."

Q: What Irish drinking song oft heard on St. Patrick's Day features Uncle Yulius?

A: Uncle Yulius is a Swede who plays with the fictitious Irish band in Bing Crosby's spoof "McNamara's Band."

Q: For what Broadway musical did George M. Cohan compose the song "Harrigan?"

A: Cohan composed this piece, a tribute to performer Ed Harrigan of Harrigan & Hart, for "Fifty Miles from Boston" in 1907.

Q: Which Irish drinking song earned a politician a $10 ticket for disturbing the peace in 1949?

A: The song "Charlie on the M.T.A." was composed by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes as a campaign song for Progressive Party Boston Mayoral candidate Walter A. O'Brien who opposed M.T.A. fare increases. He was charged with disturbing the peace for blasting the song from sound trucks during his campaign. The Kingston trio popularized the song a decade later with slight variation in lyrics including a change of the candidate's name to George.

Q: Which Irish song was performed as the closing at late Senator Ted Kennedy's memorial service?
A: "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."

Sláinte! Bennachtam na Femle Padraig. (To your health! Happy Saint Patrick's Day.)