Talk:I'll Tell Me Ma

Our family history can help answer the question in the Chorus, "Please would you tell me, who is she?" Her name was Laura Eliza Jane Seymour Bell Thistlethwayte. Like all folk songs, they start with an essence of truth that can get lost over the years. In this case the second half of the chorus is a play on words;

She is handsome, she is pretty,

She is the Belle of Belfast City;

She is a-courting one, two, three

Please can you tell me who is she?

This Belfast version shows a love of words and their multiple meanings that has long been a trait in the writings of Irish authors. Replacing the location to Belfast in line two is straightforward, but more importantly the word ‘lass’ or ‘girl’ is replaced with Belle which I have seen written with a capital ‘B’ and the word in italics to emphasize its importance to unlocking the puzzle. The last line clearly also points the question to the identification of Belle and not her lovers and the answer to the question “Who is she?” is of course, Laura Bell.

The phrase ‘pretty’ or ‘handsome horsebreaker’ was used to describe the prostitutes who rode their horses in Hyde Park dressed in the height of fashion. Even Landseer, one of Laura’s supposed lovers, named one of his paintings (of the courtesan ‘Skittles’ Walters) “The Pretty Horsebreaker” so the first line of the chorus takes on (or emphasizes) its sexual meaning.

The Belle of Belfast City (also known as I’ll Tell me Ma) has been endlessly recorded by Irish musicians including The Chieftans, the Clancy Brothers, the Corries, the Dubliners, and at least one line from the chorus has been inserted into a song by the legendary punk band The Undertones!