Irish drinking song

The Irish drinking song is played with four players. They stand in a line facing the audience.

As input for the song often business is asked: little daily nuisances or problems, an interesting occurrence, or an occupation. Everything can be used as long as it lends itself well for a jolly drinking song

The song consists of 4 couplets of 8 lines each. The first player starts, and also sings the fifth line of the couplet. The second player sings the second and sixth, etc. If all players have sung their two lines, the chorus starts.

The complete structure of the song is as follows:

  1. All players sing an irish sounding “OhhhhhhhhhAiy de, Aiy de, Aiy de, Aiy de, Aiy de, Aiy de, Aiy.”;
  2. Player 1 starts the first couplet;
  3. Then the chorus follows;
  4. Player 2 starts the second couplet;
  5. Then the chorus again;
  6. Player 3 starts the third couplet;
  7. Then another chorus;
  8. Player 4 starts the fourth and last couplet;
  9. This is closed by a chorus in which the second line is extended.

“Oh aye de dye de dye de dye de dyyeeeee deeeee dyyyyyyeeee deeee dyeeeee!”

The rhyme scheme of the couplets is ABCB (So only lines 2 and 4 have to rhyme). It is very important that lines 2 and 4 do rhyme: even if you have to use a made up word or a nonsensical utterance, make sure these lines rhyme!

The players do not necessarily have to sing their lines: speak-singing is fine, as long as you (somewhat) follow the rhythm of the music.

The Irish Drinking song is often brought in the shape of a story of the type “You won’t believe what happened to me today…”. The fourth/last couplet should end with a joke or funny moral: this can be quite crude as it is a drinking song after all!

This is an ideal closing game as all players participate, it is musical, and the game always takes the same amount of time (a few minutes at a reasonable pace). Furthermore it invites the audience to sing and dance along!

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