Also known as Clap Your Leg Up, Cock Your Leg Up, Come To Bed Love, Father Halpin, Father Halpin’s Top Coat, Father Halpin’s Topcoat, Father Murphy, Father Murphy’s Top Coat, Father Murphy’s Topcoat, Have You Seen My New Clothes?, Have You Seen My New Shoes, Is The Hen Gone, Jan Pierewiet, Jimmy Donkey’s Big Toe, Joe The Yankee, Joe The Yankee’s Big Toe, Kick A Dutchman, Kiss The Donkey, La-Va, Little Foot, Little Johnny Has The Toothache, The Old Shoes, Pat’s Top Coat, Peter Big Toe, Put Your Little Foot Right Here, Put Your Little Foot Right Out, Put Your Little Toe, Reversavianna, Shave The Donkey, Shew The Donkey, Shoo The Donkey, Shoot The Donkey, Shoot The Honky, Silver Lakes Varsovianna, The Silver Lakes Varsovianna, Silver Lakes Varsovienne, The Silver Lakes Varsovienne, There’s A Hen Gone, There’s A Hen Gone From Jones, Throw Your Leg Up, The Vals O’ Vienna, Vals Of Vienna, The Vals Of Vienna, Valse De Vienne, Valse Of Vienna, Varsouviana, The Varsouviana, Varsouvienna, Varsouvienne, Varsoviana, Varsoviana Waltz, The Varsoviana, Varsovianna, Varsovienne, Versavienna, The Versavienna, Verse Of Vienna, Versevanna, Versevianna, The Versouviana Dance, Waltz Of Vienna, The Waltz Of Vienna, Warsoviana, Warszawianka.
Text to melody:
“Shoe my Donkey, Shoe my Donkey, Shoe my Donkey’s big toe” (bis)
and for the second measure,
“Oh, we shoe’d him in France,
And we shoe’d him in Spain,
Then we came back to Ireland, and
Shoe’d him again!”
County Clare tin whistle player Micho Russell (1915-1994) is remembered fondly for singing the following lyrics to the tune:
Take it aisy, take it aisy, take it aisy like me.
Take it aisy, take it aisy, take it aisy like me.
(2nd part)
Take it aisy like me, take it aisy like me,
Take it aisy like me, take it aisy like me.’
I’m a fifty-something German trad musician building an Irish repertoire on the whistle as a retirement project.
I can read music but I realised learning ITM is much easier without the dot-detour.
If I start working on a tune from dots it takes me much longer to learn it by heart than when I absorb it from ABC notation. The quickest way I’ve come across so far is to learn tunes by color-coded ABC reducing the structure as much as possible. 
