Statue of Jack Judge

The "Tipperary" Man

Sited in Staleybridge

"It's a long way to Tipperary" is a music hall and marching song written by Jack Judge in 1912. The well known chorus is:

It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go,
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Liecester Square!
It;s a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.

Jack was a consumate performer with a perfect voice for music hall. To support his growing family he had begun to supplement his regular income as a fishseller by appearing on the stage. His debut as an entertainer with John Bull's Cold was performed at a variety concert in Birmingham in 1909. He was a great success and went on to sing songs at the main music halls and distributed the sheet music to retail outlets. He was 38 at the time.

Jack penned dozens of music hall songs. His first big singing success was with 'How Are Yer?' in 1912. Other popular lyrics included 'The Way the Wind Blows' and 'When the Band Begins To Play'.

Jack's family cam from County Mayo. In 1909 he wrote a song entitled 'It's a Long Way to Connemara', an attempt to profit from the popularity of sentimental Irish ballads as many emigrants were missing their homeland. Three years after it was composed, Jack was appearing at the Grand Theatre, Stalybridge, near Manchester. One night, after a performance, a fellow artiste bet Jack he couldn't write and perform a new song within 24 hours. Jack Judge, never one to lose a bet, pulled out the unpublished work, Connemara. To comply with the bet Jack switched the title to Tipperary and sang it on the stage at the Grand Theatre the following night.

The new version was published in 1912 and its reputation began to spread. Oon the 13th August, 1914 a Daily Mail reporter, George Curnock of the Daily Mail, was on holiday in Boulogne. He watched the British Expeditionary Force landing in France whilst standing on the steps of a Boulogne hotel. The passing battalions sang 'Soldiers of the Queen'. 'Dolly Grey'... "and then came a song of another kind altogether, a song that was new and strange to me - rich Irish voices..." He reported to his paper the initial story of Tipperary. Curnock's despatch to the Mail with the story was cabled to all parts of the world and people everywhere took the song to their hearts.

The statue was unveiled in Stalybridge on December 16th 2005, as the local brass band, the oldest in the world, did the honours! Several members of the Judge family were in attendance.

This fine bronze shows Jack sitting on a granite rock, studying the 'Tipperary' songsheet, whilst a First World War soldier leans over his shoulder and plays the song on his mouth organ. It is sited outside the newly renovated Stalybridge Town Hall, just a few hundred yards away from what was once the grand Theatre.