Broadside ballads entitled 'Irish Castles in the Air' and 'The First Bawbee'

Commentary

The first ballad begins: 'This world is all a bubble, no matter where we go, / There's nothing here but trouble, hardships, toil, and woe'.

The second ballad begins: 'Oh, nane, I trow on a' the earth, / Was happier than me, / When in my wee breek pouch / I got my first bawbee'. Published by James Kay of Glasgow, this sheet would have cost a penny to buy and is number 24 in a sequence. It carries a jolly looking woodcut of an elderly man dancing around with his stick.

Both these songs' topics have Ireland in common and may have been published together to appeal to the Irish section of Glasgow's population. Both songs, however, feature situations and emotions which would no doubt have been recognisable to most people and also had a wider appeal.

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