"The Ball of Kirriemuir" (occasionally Kerrymuir and other variants), sometimes known as "The Gathering of the Clans" or "Four-and-Twenty Virgins", is a traditional song of Scottish origin. It is

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

no. 4828. It consists of

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...

s in which the second and fourth lines rhyme, alternating with a chorus. The words, and the number of verses (of which there are many), vary between versions, but all are strikingly bawdy. It purports to recount the goings-on at a dance party in

Kirriemuir Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie or the ''Wee Red Toon'' ( gd, An Ceathramh Mòr; IPA: nˈkʰʲɛɾəvmoːɾ, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland. It reaches back to earliest recorded times, when it is thought to have been a major ecclesiastical ...

Angus, Scotland Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include agr ...

which turned into an orgy. In many versions, there are visitors from as far away as

Aviemore Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...

and

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. The general view is that the song originated sometime around the 1880s, and is loosely based on an actual event. The tale runs, that all the men were wearing

kilt A kilt ( gd, fèileadh ; Irish: ''féileadh'') is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Hi ...

s, and that few women in those days wore underwear and those that were worn had an open crotch. Someone sprinkled

rose hip The rose hip or rosehip, also called rose haw and rose hep, is the accessory fruit of the various species of rose plant. It is typically red to orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips begin to form after pollinat ...

seeds on the floor (from where they were caught up into the air as the dancing began), spiked the

punch bowl A punch bowl or punchbowl is a bowl, often large and wide, in which the drink punch is served.''The Language of Drink'' Graham and Sue Edwards 1988, Alan Sutton Publishing Origins The word ''punch'' is a loanword from Hindi. The original drin ...

with

Spanish fly The Spanish fly (''Lytta vesicatoria'') is an aposematic emerald-green beetle in the blister beetle family (Meloidae). It is distributed across Eurasia. The species and others in its family were used in traditional apothecary preparations ...

, and rigged the

paraffin lamp A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a t ...

s to go out when the double effect of the

itching powder Itching powder is a powder or powder-like substance that induces itching when applied onto human skin. This is usually done as a practical joke or prank to an unsuspecting victim. Description and uses The cause of the irritation can be mechanical ...

and the

aphrodisiac An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. Substances range from a variety of plants, spices, foods, and synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs like cannabis or cocain ...

took hold. Suggestions that some of the words can be attributed to

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

(Scotland's

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...

) or that T. S. Eliot made use of them have been refuted. The following, in Scots, is representative of the less extreme verses: The earliest known recording is by Mikeen McCarthy, an

Irish Traveller Irish Travellers ( ga, an lucht siúil, meaning "the walking people"), also known as Pavees or Mincéirs (Shelta: Mincéirí), are a traditionally peripatetic indigenous ethno-cultural group in Ireland.''Questioning Gypsy identity: ethnic na ...

, from about 1938. The song has been recorded commercially by (among others) Kenneth McKellar,

Oscar Brand Oscar Brand (February 7, 1920 – September 30, 2016) was a Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter, radio host, and author. In his career, spanning 70 years, he composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Can ...

Jim Croce James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pa ...

and

Aidan Moffat Aidan John Moffat (born 10 April 1973) is a Scottish vocalist and musician, and member of the band Arab Strap. Early life Moffat was born and raised in Falkirk, Scotland. The first album he bought was ''Elvis Sings for Kids'' by Elvis Presley. ...

. It has spread to Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand and USA. There is an anecdote that British troops of the 8th Army sang it while passing in review before

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

in February 1943 at

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

, Libya, after their victory in the

Second Battle of El Alamein The Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian Railway station, railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa ...

; upon recognising the words, Churchill broke into a broad grin. The

51st (Highland) Division The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as ...

sang it as they crossed the

River Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , sourc ...

in March 1945, near the end of World War II, as part of

Operation Plunder Operation Plunder was a military operation to cross the Rhine on the night of 23 March 1945, launched by the 21st Army Group under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The crossing of the river was at Rees, Wesel, and south of the river Li ...

; despite the Chaplain's attempts to get them to sing "

Onward, Christian Soldiers "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Erne ...

" and the band's playing "

Scotland the Brave "Scotland the Brave" ( gd, Alba an Àigh) is a Scottish patriotic song, one of three often considered an unofficial Scottish national anthem (the others being "Flower of Scotland", and "Scots Wha Hae"). History The tune probably originated in ...

Denis Healey Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he ...

, long-serving British MP and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, could sing the song in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

References

External links

* Numerous personal recollections, starting from the specified date. * Several verses. * Several verses. * Several verses, and the tune. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball of Kirriemuir, The Scottish folk songs

References

Further reading

External links