as you well know, i'm partial to an irish tune or two
so here's three
Merry Ploughboy
I am a merry ploughboy and I plough the fields all day
Till a sudden thought came to me head that I should roam away
For I am sick and tired of slavery since the day I was born
And I am off to join the I.R.A. and I am off tomorrow morn.
And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bay'nets flash and the riffles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun.
I'll leave aside me pick and spade, I'll leave aside me plough
I'll leave aside me horse and yoke, I no longer need them now
I'll leave aside me Mary, she's the girl that I adore
And I wonder if she'll think of me whe hears the riffles roar.
And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bay'nets flash and the riffles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun.
And when the war is over, and dear old Ireland is free
I'll take her to the church to wed and a rebel's wife she'll be
Well some men fight for silver and some men fight for gold
But the I.R.A. are fighting for the land that the Saxons stole.
And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bay'nets flash and the riffles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun.
Belle Of Belfast City / I'll Tell Me Ma
Tell my ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair and stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one two three
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Albert Mooney says he loves her,
All the boys are fighting for her,
Knock on the door and they ring the bell
Oh my true love, are you well?
Here she comes, as white as snow,
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
Old Johnny Mary she says she'll die
If she doesn't get the boy with the roving eye.
Tell my ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair and stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one two three
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Let the wind and the rain and the hail blow high
And the snow come tumbling from the sky
She's as nice as apple pie
She'll get her own boy, by and by
When she gets a lad of her own,
She won't tell her ma 'till she comes home,
Let the boys stay as they will,
For it's Albert Mooney she loves still.
Tell my ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair and stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one two three
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Tell my ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair and stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one two three
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Tell my ma when I go home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone,
They pulled my hair and stole my comb,
But that's all right 'till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city,
She is courting, one two three
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Galway Bay
If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,
Then maybe at the closing of your day
You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh,
And watch the sun go down on Galway Bay.
Just to hear again the ripple of the trout stream,
The women in the meadows making hay,
And to sit beside a turf- fire in the cabin
And I to watch the barefoot Gossoons at their play
For the breezes blowing o' er the seas from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands diggin' praties,
Speak a 1anguage that the strangers do not know.
For the strangers came and tried to teach us their way
They scorn'd us just for being what we are
But they might as well go chasing after moonbeams
Or light a penny candle from a star
And if there is going to be life hereafter,
And somehow I am sure there's going to be
I will ask God to let me make my heaven
In that dear land across the Irish sea
Galway Bay (parody)
Maybe someday I'll go back again to Ireland,
If my dear old wife would only pass away!
She's nearly got my heart broke with her nagging,
She's got a mouth as big as Galway Bay.
See her drinking sixteen pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon
And then she can walk home without a sway;
If the sea was beer instead of salty water
She would live and die in Galway Bay.
See he drinking sixteen pints at Pat Joe Murphy's
The barman says, "I think it's time you go."
Well, she doesn't try to answer him in Gaelic
But in language that the clergy do not know.
On her back she has tattooed a map of Ireland
And when she takes her bath on Saturday,
She rubs the Sunlight Soap around by Claddagh
Just to watch the suds go down by Galway Bay.
