The Auld Triangle

Whenever I put the Noodle to bed I sing The Auld Triangle to him, have done so since he was born. It's fantastic to have a captive audience for my unarguably abysmal singing.

It is also wonderful to see him watching me as I sing. His breathing slows and his eyes grow heavy and occasionally close before I finish. Other times he is still bouncing 'round his cot like an over-caffeinated Jack Russell. Then I have to bring in the big guns - The Gypsy Rover.

I hope one day he'll like at least some of the music that has been the soundtrack to my life. He bloody better. Currently he is learning to sing Row Your Boat and Ring-a-Rosy. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. In fact he has taken Knickers' and my combined genetic disinclination to musical genius and appears to be pushing the envelope to prodigious new levels. Perhaps I am too harsh but I already worry about pushing him to succeed in streets I dreamed of treading.

The song was originally written by Brendan Behan, but I've only ever heard The Pogues' cover from Red Roses For Me which differs slightly and is as follows:

A hungry feeling
Came o'er me stealing
And the mice were squealing
In my prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! To start the morning
The warden bawling
"Get up out of bed, you! And Clean out your cell!"
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! the screw was peeping
And the lag was sleeping
As he lay weeping
For his girl Sal
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

On a fine Spring evening
The lag lay dreaming
And the sea-gulls were wheeling
High above the wall
And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Oh! the wind was sighing
And the day was dying
As the lag lay crying
In his prison cell
And that auld triangle went jingle-bloody-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal

In the women's prison
There are seventy women
And I wish it was with them
That I did dwell
Then that auld triangle could go jingle-jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal