Contemporary: The Ould Triangle
The Auld Triangle (aka Ould Triangle or Old Triangle)
Brendan Behan
Two verses and choruses:
.mp3
(439 KB)
"The Auld Triangle" is performed by
Máirtín de Cógáin on his CD The False Start

Notes: This song was featured in Brendan Behan's play,
"The Quare Fella." The sound of the triangle summoned prisoners to
their meals in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, the setting of the song. The walls
of
the prison border the Royal Canal, one of two canals in Dublin that join the
River Liffey.
Behan wrote this song while serving a prison sentence
for his activities in the I.R.A.
Brendan Behan
sheet music
Oh! a hungry feeling, it came o'er me stealing
And the mice they were squealing in my prison cell--
Chorus:
And the ould triangle, It went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
Now the screw was peeping while the lag was sleeping
And he was dreaming of his gal, Sal,
Chorus
And to begin the morning, the warders bawling
"Ah, get up you bowsey and clean out your cell!"
Chorus
Now in the female prison there are seventeen women
And it's among those women I would like to dwell;
Chorus
Now the wind was rising and the sun declining
While I lay there pining in my prison cell.
Chorus