‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary’
In this animated film, a British soldier dodges bullets and explosions. He grits his teeth as he thinks, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’. If you want to sing along, as cinema audiences did when it was presented, the lyrics are right there on the screen.
Year:c.1914
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‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary’
In this animated film, a British soldier dodges bullets and explosions. He grits his teeth as he thinks, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’. If you want to sing along, as cinema audiences did when it was presented, the lyrics are right there on the screen.
Year: c.1914
Length: 01:27
Credits: Music and Lyrics: Jack Judge and Harry Williams
Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Catalogue Reference: 48856 It's a Long Way to Tipperary
Tags: Cinema, Song, Animation, Soldiers
Before World War I, the song It’s a Long Way to Tipperary was already popular in Australian vaudeville. When newspapers reported in August 1914 that British troops sang this song while marching into Boulogne, France, it became a symbol of defiant courage. This film’s skilful animation makes an advance on ‘song slides’ with their still images, and whereas song slides were often sentimental, here we see the horrors of war.
The lone soldier is stoic. He grimaces but keeps on trudging. Images of the ‘Mademoiselle from Armentieres’ (the subject of another popular WW1 song) and a Leicester Square barmaid, and his efforts at dodging bullets, inject black humour that is an intriguing, anti-heroic reaction to war.
This animation, and a performance of the song by Win Leslie, were presented in November 1914 at the Lyceum Theatre, Brisbane.
This wasn’t the only song-film for Tipperary. Australian filmmakers the Higgins Brothers created a live-action production of the same song, also inviting audiences to sing along; only fragments of that production remain.
When audiences sang together, accompanied by theatre piano or band, they gained a sense of community and acknowledged their shared fears and hopes. Like the soldiers who marched into Boulogne, they sang to rally their own spirits and to defy the enemy.
Lyrics:
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary - lyrics
Up to mighty London came
An Irish lad one day,
All the streets were paved with gold,
So everyone was gay!
Singing songs of Piccadilly,
Strand, and Leicester Square,
'Til Paddy got excited and
He shouted to them there:
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square!
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.
Paddy wrote a letter
To his Irish Molly O',
Saying, "Should you not receive it,
Write and let me know!
If I make mistakes in "spelling",
Molly dear", said he,
"Remember it's the pen, that's bad,
Don't lay the blame on me".
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.
Molly wrote a neat reply
To Irish Paddy O',
Saying, "Mike Maloney wants
To marry me, and so
Leave the Strand and Piccadilly,
Or you'll be to blame,
For love has fairly drove me silly,
Hoping you're the same!"
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square,
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.
Extra wartime verse
That's the wrong way to tickle Mary,
That's the wrong way to kiss!
Don't you know that over here, lad,
They like it best like this!
Hooray pour le Francais!
Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know the way to tickle Mary,
But we learned how, over there!
‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary’
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00:00
Animated soldier trudges past a dugout called ‘Windy Nook’ as the words to ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ rollout across the bottom of the screen
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00:03
The soldier keeps walking as missiles pass overhead and explosions go off
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00:16
The soldier passes a painted sign with a caricature of a fashionable French woman: ‘Mademoiselle from Amentieres’
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00:24
The soldier passes a ‘vision’ of Piccadilly Circus, London with the Shaftesbury memorial statue of Eros
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00:27
The soldier passes a ‘vision’ of a woman pouring beer in a pub
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00:41
The animation then repeats itself from the start