In the [B] sweet county Lim'rick one [E] cold winter's [B] night
there was [B] bonfires and fiddlin when I [E] first saw the [F#] light
and the [B] lanky legged midwife went [E] tipsy with [B] joy
As she [B] staggered around with a [E] slip of a [F#] boy,

Chorus:
singing "Bain-ne na mbo dos na gamh-na
(Pronounced: [B] Ban ya on bo is on [E] gaw-[B] na)
and the [B] juice of the [F#] barley for [B] me!"

Well when I was a gossoon of eight years or so
with me turf and me primer to school I did go
to a dusty old school house without any door
where lay the schoolmaster blind drunk on the floor

(Chorus)

At the learnin I wasn't much a genius I'm thinking
but I soon beat the master entirely at drinking
not a wake or a wedding for five miles around
but myself in the corner ws sure to be found

(Chorus)

One Sunday the priest read me out from the altar
saying you'll end up your days with your neck in a halter
and you'll dance a fine jig between heaven and hell
and his words they frighten me, truth for to tell

(Chorus)

So the very next morning as the dawn it did break
I went down to the vestry the pledge for to take
and there in that room sat the priests ina bunch
Round a big roaring fire drinking tumblers of punch

(Chorus)

From that day to this I have wandered alone
A jack of all trades, aye, and a master of none
With the sky for me roof and the earth for me floor
sure I'll dance out my days drinking whiskey galore

(Chorus)