One of the primary icons of Cork city, Father Matthew’s statue on Patrick’s street would have been newly erected in honour of the local son and temperance reformer when Francis O’Neill first left Ireland as a young man. A local ballad “The Boys of Fair Hill” contains the following verse:
The smell on Patrick’s Bridge is wicked
How does Father Matthew stick it?
Here’s up them all says the boys of Fairhill
Here’s Jimmy Crowley & Stoker’s Lodge 1975 version of the song, complete with commentary from locals of the time: