Yea, he hath no mananas

• mañana - Spanish "tomorrow" -- "Yes, we have no tomorrows, we have no tomorrows, today!"

And, now, for a musical interlude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTTrXAE7OPU

The song 'Yes, We Have no Bananas!' was the theme of the Outdoor Relief protests in Belfast in 1932. These were a unique example of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland protesting together, and the song was used because it was one of the few non-sectarian songs that both communities knew. The song lent its title to a book about the depression in Belfast. [ Devlin, Paddy, Yes, We Have No Bananas: Outdoor Relief in Belfast, 1920-39. ]

The term has been resurrected on many occasions, including in Britain during World War II, when the British Government banned the importing of bananas for an entire five years. Shop owners put signs stating "Yes, we have no bananas" in their shop windows in keeping with the war spirit, but did Joyce know that or, even more important, did this occur before he died?

The song was the subject of a column by Sigmund Spaeth, who suggested that the melody could have been derived from a combination of parts of other songs including the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by Handel, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean", "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls", "Aunt Dinah's Quilting party" and Cole Porter's "An Old-Fashioned Garden".

Substituting the original lyrics from those to the appropriate melodic phrases you get:

   Hallelujah, Bananas! Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
   I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls—the king that you seldom see
   I was seeing Nellie home, to an old-fashioned garden: but,
   Hallelujah, Bananas! Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me! 

[ Reader's Digest, Treasury of Best Loved Songs (1972), The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., LCCN 71-183858 ]

Cfr. w/ 'I'll dreamt that I'll dwealth mid warblers' walls when throstles and choughs to my sigh hiehied' (Finnegans Wake, p. 449) and the song from the opera The Bohemian Girl by Michael Balfe and Alfred Bunn, which is also sung by Maria in Dubliner's 'Clay' [1]