School: Killymarley (roll number 15398)
- Location:
- Coill Ó Mearlaigh, Co. Mhuineacháin
- Teacher: Bean Uí Chléirigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0957, Page 363
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Killymarley
- XML Page 363
- XML “Winter Amusements”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Amongst outdoor games played in the district "the Grand Old Duke of York" is one of the oldest and is still a favourite. Each player chooses a partner and they stand opposite each other in two straight rows. The players at the top join hands and march between the two rows to the bottom and back again. They then separate and march down the outside of the row. Each row of players follows the leader. When they reach the bottom they stop and join hands forming a bridge under which the other players pass in pairs as they march back and resume their former positionThe pair who started from the top are now at the bottom and the next pair at the top start off. This is repeated until all the players have taken part. During the time the game is being played the following rhyme is sung by all the players : -"The Grand Old Duke of York
He had so many men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again
When they were up, they were up
And when they were down, they were down.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Annie Boyd
- Gender
- Female
