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Flying Isaac

from Sheffield Made by Steel Songbirds

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about

Flying Isaac was a woman who gained notoriety in the mid 1800s.

"Elizabeth Ann O’Mally, better known by her sobriquet of “Flying Isaac,” was charged, for fully the hundredth time, with being drunk and disorderly"

She died in 1868, aged in her 30s.

lyrics

7. Ballad of Flying Isaac
© Sally Ironmonger & Brian Carter

Have you heard of Flying Isaac, the queen of New Brompton?
She was the sailor’s joy!
She’d ask ‘em for a shilling, and she would be willing
with a captain or a cabin boy.
She’d take them to a churchyard, she’d lie down on a tombstone
– the Chatham girls’ romance.
When she'd satisfied their cravings she would have away their savings
without a second glance.

Chorus:
Oh, up and down the brook she goes,
‘Hello sailor, what do you know?’
Flying Isaac bold as brass.
Oh, up and down the brook she goes,
‘Hello sailor, what do you know?
Do you want to buy a lady a glass?’

The landlord of The Crown said he didn’t want her custom –
She had no means to pay.
She said she’d pay in kind but he kicked her behind and told her
‘Just go on your way.’
But she was unbowed as she turned to the crowd,
like a ship that was in full sail.
She was hard to handle, she’d become a bloody scandal,
so they put her in the gaol.

Chorus

When Flying Isaac came before the judge in all her glory
to pay for her disgrace,
the judge sat way up high and she looked him in the eye
and said, ‘Don’t I know your face?’
Well, the courtroom was amused at the sight of the accused
watching Old Judge Brown’s shame.
She got off with a warning and was on the street next morning
playing the same old games.

Chorus

All you’ve got to do is ask…

credits

from Sheffield Made, released February 15, 2019
Sally Ironmonger and Brian Carter

license

all rights reserved

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about

Steel Songbirds image

Steel Songbirds Sheffield, UK

Steel Songbirds are Marilla Homes and Emily Eastwood. A comic and poignant musical duo based in Sheffield UK. Blending acapella voices, with occasional fiddle or bouzouki, these girls know how to laugh!

Steel Songbirds were dug from the soil of Australia & England, forged in Sheffield UK, tempered in the swimming pool of life & sharpened on the wit of singledom in the folk/pub/archaeology worlds. ... more

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