So that with all the talk there was, no one could know
If the child was too fast, or the clock was too slow!
"Now the first faction fight in owld Ireland, they say,
Was all on account of St. Patrick's birthday.
Some fought for the eighth, for the ninth more would die;
And who wouldn't see right, why, they blackened his eye.
"At last each faction so positive grew
That each kept a birthday, and Patrick had two!
Until good Father Mulcahy, who showed them their sins,
Said no one could have two birthdays, but twins!