The Dubliners

[fox69]

"God Save Ireland"

"God Save Ireland"


[Chorus:]
God save Ireland, said the heroes
God save Ireland, said they all
Whether on the scaffold high
Or the battlefield we die
Oh what matter when for Erin dear we fall?

High upon the gallows tree
Swung the noble hearted three
By the vengeful tyrant stricken in their bloom
But they met him face to face
With the courage of their race
And they went with souls undaunted to their doom

[Chorus]

When they're up the rugged stair
Rang their voices out in prayer
Then with England's fatal cord around them cast
Close beside the gallows tree
Kissed like brothers lovingly
True to home and faith and freedom to the last

[Chorus]

Never till the latest day
Shall the memory pass away?
Oh, the gallant lives thus given for our land
But on the cause must go
Amid joy and weal and woe
Till we make our Isle a nation free and grand

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Greenland Whale Fishery"

"Greenland Whale Fishery"



Twas in eighteen hundred andfifty-three
And ofJune thethirteenthday,
That ourgallant ship heranchor weighed,
And forgreenlandbore away, brave boys,
And for greenlandbore away.

The lookout in the crosstrees stood
With spyglass in his hand;
There's a whale, there's a whale, there's whalefish he
cried
And she blows at every span, brave boys
She blows at every span.

The captain stood on the quarter deck,
And a fine little man was he;
"Overhaul, overhaul! Let your davit tackles fall,
And launch your boats for sea, brave boys
And launch your boats for sea.

Now the boats were launched and the men aboard,
And the whale was full in view.
Resolv-ed was each seaman bold
To steer where the whalefish blew, brave boys
To steer where the whalefish blew.
We stuck the whale the line paid out,
But she gave a flourish with her tail,
And we never caught that whale, brave boys,
And we never caught that whale.

To lose the whale," our captain said,
It grieves my heart full sore,
But oh! to lose (those) four gallant men
It grieves me ten times more brave boys
It grieves me ten times more.
The winter star doth now appear,
So, boys we'll anchor weight;
It's time to leave this cold country
And homeward bear away, brave boys
And homeward bear away.
Oh Greenland is a dreadful place
A land that's never green
Where there's ice and snow, and the whalefishes blow
(and the) daylight's seldom seen brave boys
But the daylight's seldom seen.

Now, as the dawn is breaking my heart is breaking too
As I walk out on this may morn, my thoughts will be of you
So write these words upon the wall so everyone will know
I loved so much that I could see his blood upon the rose

 

[fox69]

"Hand Me Down Me Petticoat"

"Hand Me Down Me Petticoat"



Oh hand me down me petticoat
And hand me down me shawl
Oh hand me down me buttoned boots
For I'm off to the Linen Hall

A'ra he was a quare one
Fa de liddle yodle da
He was a quare one and I'll tell you

If you go down to the Curragh Camp
Called in at number nine
You'll see three squaddies standing there
Now the good-looking one is mine

A'ra he was a quare one
Fa de liddle yodle da
He was a quare one and I'll tell you

Oh, me love has joined the army
All under a false name
Oh, he's done me on me pension
And his ould wan is all to blame

 

[fox69]

"Hand Me Down My Bible"

"Hand Me Down My Bible"



Oh, Glory-O! Now I'm the Lord's disciple.
Oh, Glory-O! Now hand me down me bible.

I like my liquor and my livin' hard. May the Lord save my soul.
My salvation was the turn of card. My heart's as black as coal,
But everybody's got the right to go wrong
Everybody's got to sing my song.
Everybody's got the right to go wrong.
Sing my song. Sing my song.

Oh, Glory-O! Now I'm the Lord's disciple.
Oh, Glory-O! Now hand me down me bible.

I don't give a damn for any man, as all the world can see.
The time has come to make a stand, to shine your light on me.
Come on, people. Let your life begin.
Come on now. Let the sun shine in.
Come on, people. Let your life begin.
Let it in. Let it in.

Oh, Glory-O! Now I'm the Lord's disciple.
Oh, Glory-O! Now hand me down me bible.

 

[fox69]

"High Germany"

"High Germany"



O Polly love, O Polly, the road has now begun
And we must go a marching at the beating of the drum
Go dress yourself all in your best and come along with me
I'll take you to the war me love in High Germany

Willy love, o Willy come list' what I do say
My feet they are so tender, I cannot march away
And besides my dearest Willy I am with child by thee
Not fitted for the war me love in High Germany

I'll buy for you a horse me love
And on it you shall ride
And all my life shall I be riding by your side
We'll stop at every alehouse and drink when we are dry
We'll be true to one another
Get married bye and bye

O cursed be them cruel wars that ever they should rise
And out of merry England press many a man likewise
They pressed my true love from me
Likewise my brothers three
And sent them to the wars me love in High Germany

My friends I do not value nor my foes I do not fear
Now my love has left me I wander far and near
And when my baby it is born and smiling on my knee
I will think of lovely Willy in High Germany

O Polly love, O Polly, the road has now begun
And we must go a marching at the beating of the drum
Go dress yourself all in your best and come along with me
I'll take you to the war me love in High Germany

 

[fox69]

"Home Boys, Home"

"Home Boys, Home"



Oh well, who wouldn't be a sailor lad a 'Sailin' on the main
To gain the goodwill of his captain's good name
He came ashore one evening for to be
And that was the beginning of my own true love and me

And it's home, boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for a while in my own coun-try
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny rowan tree
Are all a-growing green in the old country

Well I asked her for a candle for to light me up to bed
And likewise for a handkerchief to tie around me head
She tended to me needs like a young maid ought to do
So then I says to her: 'Now won't you leap in with me too?'

And it's home, boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for a while in my own coun-try
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny rowan tree
Are all a-growing green in the old country

Well she jumped into bed, making no alarm
Thinking a young sailor lad could do to her no harm
Well I hugged her and I kissed her the whole nightlong
Till she wished the short night had been seven years long

And its home, boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for a while in my own coun-try
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny rowan tree
Are all a-growing green in the old country

Well early next morning the sailor lad arose
And into Mary's apron threw a handful of gold
Saying, 'Take this me dear for the mischief that I've done
For tonight I fear I've left you with a daughter or a son'

And it's home, boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for a while in my own coun-try
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny rowan tree
Are all a-growing green in the old country

'Well, if it be a girl child, send her out to nurse
With gold in her pocket and with silver in her purse
And if it be a boy child he'll wear the jacket blue
And go climbing up the rigging like his daddy used to do'

Maidens, a warning take by me
And never let a sailor lad an inch above your knee
For I trusted one and he beguiled me
He left me with a pair of twins to dangle on me knee

And it's home, boys home
Home I'd like to be, home for a while in my own coun-try
Where the oak and the ash and the bonny rowan tree
Are all a-growing green in the old country

 

[fox69]

"Hot Asphalt"

"Hot Asphalt"



Good evening, all my jolly lads, I'm glad to find you well
If you'll gather all around me, now, the story I will tell
For I've got a situation and begorrah and begob
I can whisper all the weekly wage of nineteen bob

'Tis twelve months come October since I left me native home
After helping them Killarney boys to bring the harvest down
But now I wear the gansey and around me waist a belt
I'm the gaffer of the squad that makes the hot asphalt

Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever, sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt
Any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt

The other night a copper comes and he says to me, McGuire
Would you kindly let me light me pipe down at your boiler fire?
And he planks himself right down in front, with hobnails up, till late
And says I, me decent man, you'd better go and find your bait

He ups and yells, I'm down on you, I'm up to all yer pranks
Don't I know you for a traitor from the Tipperary ranks?
Boys, I hit straight from the shoulder and I gave him such a belt
That I knocked him into the boiler full of hot asphalt

Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever, sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt
Any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt

We quickly dragged him out again and we threw him in the tub
And with soap and warm water we began to rub and scrub
But devil the thing, it hardened and it turned him hard as stone
And with every other rub, sure you could hear the copper groan

I'm thinking, says O'Reilly, that he's lookin' like old Nick
And burn me if I am not inclined to claim him with me pick
Now, says I, it would be easier to boil him till he melts
And to stir him nice and easy in the hot asphalt

Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever, sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt
Any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt

You may talk about yer sailor lads, ballad singers and the rest
Your shoemakers and your tailors but we please the ladies best
The only ones who know the way their flinty hearts to melt
Are the lads around the boiler making hot asphalt

With rubbing and with scrubbing, sure I caught me death of cold
For scientific purposes, me body it was sold
In the Kelvin grove museum, me boys, I'm hangin' in me pelt
As a monument to the Irish, making hot asphalt

Well, we laid it in a hollows and we laid it in the flat
And if it doesn't last forever, sure I swear, I'll eat me hat
Well, I've wandered up and down the world and sure I never felt
Any surface that was equal to the hot asphalt

 

[fox69]

"Humpty Dumpty"

"Humpty Dumpty"



Introduction by Ronnie,
James Joyce is renown for written some very
Very complicated material
Surprisingly he wrote the next song, which is very simple
Have you heard o' one Humpty Dumpty?
How he fell with a roll and a rumble
Crawled up like lord Oliver Crumble
As the boot of the magazine wall
The magazine wall, hump helmet and all
He was one time our king of the castle
Now he's kicked about like a rotten old parsnip
And from Green Street he'll be sent
By order of his worth ship
To the penal jail of Mount Joy
To the jail of Mount Joy, jail him with joy
He was for father of all things for to bother us
Slow coaches and the market contraceptive for the metropolis
Mayors milk for the sick
Seven dry Sunday's a week
Open air love and religion reform
Religion reforms, so hideous and forms
And o' why says you couldn't he menage it
I'll go bail me fine dearie mount darling
Like the bumping bullet the Cassidy's
All his butter's in his horns
His butter's in his horns, butter his horns
Sweet Pad looks to the waves washed to old Ireland
The hooker of the hammer fast Viking
And gold's cursing the day that at Blanna bay
Saw his black and tan men a war
Saw his black and tan men a war, at the Harber bar
He was jointed by Wellington's monument
O' a retorious hippo' po potomus
When some bugger let down the back strap at the omnibus
And he got his dead with of fusiliers
When he's rented his rears, give em six years
Oh he'll have a free trade gaels banned in mass meeting
For to saws that brave son of Scandinavery
And we'll berry him down in Oxmond's Town
Along with the devil and Dane's
The death and dom Dane's, and all their remains
Now all the Kings men not his horses
Could never resurrect his corpses
For there's no true spell, in Curington hell
That's able to raise a cane

 

[fox69]

"I Know My Love"

"I Know My Love"


I know my love by his way of walking
And I know my love by his way of talking
And I know my love dressed in a suit of blue
And if my love leaves me what will I do?

[Chorus:]
And still she cried 'I love him the best'
And a troubled mind sure can know no rest
And still she cried 'Bonny boys are few'
And if my love leaves me what will I do?

There is a dance hall in Mardyke
And it's there my love goes every night
And he takes a strange girl upon his knee
And don't you know that this vexes me

[Chorus]

If my love knew that I could wash and wring
And if my love knew that I could weave and spin
I would make a suit all of the finest kind
But the want of money, it leaves me behind

[Chorus]

I know my love is an errant rover
And I know he'll travel the world all over
And in dear old Ireland he'll no longer tarry
And an English damsel he's sure to marry

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"I Wish I Were Back In Liverpool"

"I Wish I Were Back In Liverpool"



I wish I was back in Liverpool, Liverpool town where I was born
Where there ain't no trees, no scent of grease, no field's of waving corn
But there's lots of girls with peroxide curls and the black and tan flows free
There's six in a bed by the old pier head and it's Liverpool town for me

'Tis seven long years since I wandered away to sail the wild world o'er
Me very first trip on an old steam ship that was bound for Baltimore
I was seven days sick and I just couldn't stick that bobbin' up and down
So I told them "Jack, you'd better turn back for dear old Liverpool town"

I wish I was back in Liverpool, Liverpool town where I was born
Where there ain't no trees, no scent of grease, no field's of waving corn
But there's lots of girls with peroxide curls and the black and tan flows free
There's six in a bed by the old pier head and it's Liverpool town for me

We dug the Mersey tunnel, boys, way back in thirty-three
Dug an hole in the ground until we found an hold called Wallasey
Then the foreman cried "Come on, outside! The roof is fallin' down"
While I'm tellin' you, Jack, we all swum back to dear old Liverpool town

I wish I was back in Liverpool, Liverpool town where I was born
Where there ain't no trees, no scent of grease, no field's of waving corn
But there's lots of girls with peroxide curls and the black and tan flows free
There's six in a bed by the old pier head and it's Liverpool town for me

There's every race and colour of face, there's every kind of name
But the pigeons on the pier head they treat you all the same
And if you walk up upon Parlament Street you'll get faces black and brown
And I've also seen the orange-green in dear old Liverpool town

I wish I was back in Liverpool, Liverpool town where I was born
Where there ain't no trees, no scent of grease, no fiel's of waving corn
But there's lots of girls with peroxide curls and the black and tan flows free
There's six in a bed by the old pier head and it's Liverpool town for me