What does “Whack for the toora loora laddy, whack for the toora loora lay.” mean?

Question

December 12, 2022

from the song Spanish Lady, by Celtic Woman

Update:

wow..thanks

that was really good

wow..thanks

that was really good

score 1 · Accepted Answer

There are may Irish songs which have the expression “tura lura” (with many alternative spellings), and its general meaning is simply “goodbye”.

A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English,” by Eric Partridge (Paul Beale, ed., 8th Ed. 1984), page 1250, states:

“tooraloo! Goodbye for now!; I’ll be seeing you: a mainly Anglo-Irish var. of tootle-oo”

This dictionary dates the expression to circa 1910, and notes it in James Joyce’s “Ulysses” from 1922:

“‘Toraloo,’ Lenehan said, “‘see you later.'”

The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary cites Joyce, as well as D.H. Lawrence circa 1921 (“‘So

long! See you soon! Too-ra-loo!'”), for the meaning “‘Goodbye.'”

There are many songs which have similar phrases, all derived from Irish folk songs.

Other examples:

Many Thin Lizzy songs also have such expressions (they covered the traditional “Whiskey In The Jar”, of course).

In many Irish songs the phrase makes no sense in context, so it may just be a vocalisation of a sound, something like “scat singing” or a filler:

“Tirralirra”: Tir”ra*lir`ra, n. A verbal imitation of a musical sound, as of the note of a lark or a horn.

“Tirralira” by the river, sang Sir Lancelot. –Tennyson.

Tura lura may just be a variant of this.