Since Nancy Died

Live my life from day to day
Thoughts I used to push away
I no longer turn aside

Though I might seem quite unchanged
Untouched, unmoved, quite-self-contained
You know I've never been the same
Since Nancy died

Refrain:
Things aint been the same
Things aint been the same
Things aint been the same
Since Nancy died

For what was distant is now near
What was misty is now clear
What was tomorrow is now here
No longer can I hide

Though I might seem quite unchanged
Untouched, unmoved, quite-self-contained
You know I've never been the same
Since Nancy died

(Refrain)

O I thought there for a while
She'd never stop dying
And I thought there for a while
I'd never start crying O no no

So I live my life from day to day
I move around in the same old way
Thoughts I used to push away
I no longer turn aside

Now my silly fantasies
Of my immortality
How foolish now they seem to be
Since Nancy died

(Refrain)

(Refrain)

Don't Get Married, Girls

Don't get married, girls, you'll sign away your life
You may start off as a woman, but you'll end up as a wife
Be a daring deep sea diver, be a polished polyglot
But don't get married, girls, for marriage is a plot

O it's fine when you're romancing and he plays the lover's part
You're the roses in his garden, you're the flame that warms his heart
And his love will last forever and he'll promise you the moon
But just wait until you're wedded and he'll sing a different tune

You're his tapioca pudding, you're the dumpling in his stew
But he'll soon begin to wonder what he ever saw in you
And he'll take without complaining all the dishes you provide
For you see he's got to have his bit of jam tart on the side

So don't get married, girls, men are all the same
They use you when they need you, you do better on the game
Be a call girl, be a stripper, be a hostess, be a whore
But don't get married, girls, for marriage is a bore

Have you seen him in the morning with the face that looks like death
With dandruff on his pillow and tobacco on his breath?
And he needs some reassurance with his cup of tea in bed
For he's worried by the mortgage and the bald patch on his head

And he thinks that you're his mother, leans his head upon your chest
While you try to boost his ego, iron his shirt and warm his vest
You get him off to work, the mighty hunter is restored
And he leaves you there with nothing but the dreams you can't afford

So don't get married, girls, men are all the same
They use you when they need you, you do better on the game
Be a call girl, be a stripper, be a hostess, be a whore
But don't get married, girls, for marriage is a bore

When he comes home in the evening he can hardly spare a look
All he says is, What's for dinner? After all, you're just a cook
When he takes you to a party, he eyes you with a frown
For you know you've got to look your best, you mustn't let him down

And he (?) you with that look-what-I've-got twinkle in his eye
Like he's entered for a raffle and he won you for the prize
But when the party's over, you'll be slopping through the sludge
Half the time a decoration and the other half a drudge

But don't get married, girls, it's very sure to end
It's the lane without a turning, it's the end without an end
Take a lover every friday, take up tennis, be a nurse
But don't get married, girls, for marriage is a curse

You get him off to work, the mighty hunter is restored
And he leaves you there with nothing but the dreams you can't afford

Blood upon the Grass

September the eleventh, 1973
Many people died in a wild machine-gun spree
When a Santiago sports ground became a place to kill
Now the Scottish football team have gone there with their skills

Now there's blood upon the grass
O there's blood upon the grass

Did you go there, Archie Gamill, did you play there, Tom Forsythe?
Where many folk met early the grim reaper with his scythe
None of them were terrorists, not even party hacks
Maybe some of them were goalkeepers, maybe some were center backs

Now there's blood upon the grass
There's blood upon the grass

Victor Harra played guitar there, when they took him to that ground
And they broke his fingers one by one, so his strings no more would sound
But Harra kept on singing, songs of freedom, songs of peace
And even when they cut him down, his message didn't cease

Now his blood's upon the grass
His blood's upon the grass

So as you stand there on the terracine, at Ibrox or Park Head
And you cheer your team all green and blue or orange, white and red
Those Santiago victims they are people of our kind
Too bad their football bosses couldn't change their bloody mind

Now there's blood upon their hands,
There's blood upon their hands

September the eleventh, 1973
Many people died in a wild machine-gun spree
When a Santiago sports ground became a place to kill
Now the Scottish football team have gone there with their skills

Now there's blood upon the grass
There's blood upon the grass

Now there's blood upon the grass
There's blood upon the grass

McCafferty

When I was eighteen years of age
Into the army I did engage
I left my home with a good intent
For to join the forty-second regiment

While I was posted on guard one day
Some soldiers' children came out to play
From the officers' quarters my captain came
And he ordered me for to take their names

I took one name, now, instead of three
And for neglect of duty he then charged me
Confined to barracks with loss of pay
For doing my duty the opposite way

A loaded rifle I did prepare
For to shoot my captain on the barracks square
It was my captain I meant to kill
But I shot my colonel against my will

In Liverpool assizes my trial I stood
And I held my courage, now, as best I could
The old judge sais, Now McCafferty
Go prepare your soul for eternity

I have no father my case to plead
No loving mother for to comfort me
I have one friend and a girl is she
She'd lay down her life for McCafferty

So come all you officers, take advice from me
And go treat your men with some decency
For it's only lies and the tyrrany
That made a martyr of McCafferty

?

(?)

The Banks of the Dargle

When the sun it went down in old Dublin town
And the moon took me out for a gargle
With me old Sam Brown belt and me brimmer of felt
I went down by the banks of the Dargle

I was only a boy and me gun was a toy
And how I grew up was a marvel
Ah but history was nade of the games that we played
Down by the old river Dargle

Refrain:
It's one two and three I'm the gunner McGee
I live on me wits and the gargle
Yes, amh·in dÛ a trÌ say a small glory be
For McGee and the boys from the Dargle

When the Rising went down in old Dublin town
No one took me out for a gargle
Sure the men in the street they just spit through their teeth
At McGee and the boys from the Dargle

They did not understand all the fine things we planned
It made Lloyd George stand back and marvel
Sure they talk of their pride where James Connolly died
On the banks, the banks of the Dargle

(Refrain)

It's one two and three I'm the gunner McGee
No longer a threat nor a marvel
I go home by a drain full of rubbish and shame
That once was the proud river Dargle

(Refrain)

He's Nobody's Moggy Now

...by the side of the road
Somebody's pussy who forgot the highway code
Someone's favorite feline who ran clean out of luck
When he ran into the road and tried to argue with a truck

Yesterday he purred all day in his pussy paradise
Decapitating tweety birds and masticating mice
Now he's just six pounds of raw mince meat that don't smell very nice
He's nobody's moggy now

All you who love your pussy, be sure to keep him in
Don't let him argue with a truck, the truck is bound to win
And on the busy roads don't let him play or frolic
For if you do, I warning you, it could be catastrophic

And if upon the busy roads I'm afraid that will be that
There will be one last despairing meow and a sort of squelchy splat
And your pussy will be slightly dead and very very flat
He's nobody's moggy
Just red and squashed and soggy
He's nobody's moggy now

Only Our Rivers Run Free

When apples do grow in November
When blossoms do bloom from each tree
When the leaves are still green in December
Tis then that our land will be free

I've wandered her hills and her valleys
And still through my sorrow I see
A land that has never known freedom
And only her rivers run free

I drink to the death of her manhood
Those men who would rather have died
Than to live in the cold chains of bondage
To take back their rights where denied

Where are you now when we need you?
What burns where your flame used to be?
Are you gone like the snows of last winter?
And do only our rivers run free?

How sweet is life but we're dying
How mellow the wine that won't dry
How fragrant the rose but it's dying
How gentle the wind but it's high

What good is in youth when you're aging?
What joy is in eyes that can't see?
When there's sorrow in sunshine and flowers
And only your rivers run free
Yes only our rivers run free

?

At the turn of the century I was a lad of five
Me father went to fight the Boers, he never came back alive
Me mother was left to bring us up and no charity she'd seek
She washed and scrubbed and scraped along on seven and six a week

When the war was over and we'd settled with the Huns

Stranger to the Seasons

O a man without a job is a stranger to the seasons
The April rain will soak you like the worst November brings
O we're tired of being excuses and carefully worded reasons
Without winter there's no summer, without autumn there's no spring

When the factories close down and life leaves from the town
Some politicians tell us, Move and build another home
O we elected them to lead us, we didn't say they had to feed us
If they will give us back our jobs then we will take care of our own

For a man without a job is a stranger to the seasons
The April rain will soak you like the worst November brings
Like a band without a drummer, there's no winter, spring or summer
There's no rhythm to the cycle of the months within a year

And we are all the poorer for those millions who keep growing
Whose season stays at autumn and whose only color's grey
O we get by on the dole, it feeds the body, starves the soul
Stirs the bitterness that's forming in the ones that's been betrayed

O a man without a job is a stranger to the seasons
The April rain will soak you like the worst November brings
O we're tired of being excuses and carefully worded reasons
Without winter there's no summer, without autumn there's no spring

Steal Away

Refrain:
Steal away, let's steal away
There'll be none left to stay
For me and you, we'll start anew
And darling steal away

Let's steal away and change our dreams
And hope they'll never find us
The dreary days, the empty nights
We'll leave them all behind us

(Refrain)

We'll leave behind the city streets
The gloom, the desolation
The rain, the cold, the growing old
O God, it's a hard old station

(Refrain)

We'll leave with just our memories
And make them see beginning
We have to chose to win or lose
Since time has passed away

Steal away, let's steal away
Leave them all behind us
For me and you, we'll start anew
And darling steal away

The Reason I Left Mullingar

(?) this city a stranger
In a land I can never call home
I cast a sad notion across me
(?) my fortune to call

I'm weary of working and (?)
On a week's wages (?)
Ah but God it's a shame for to use a friend's name
(?) the price of (?)

Refrain:
So I remember that bright April morning
I left home to travel afar
O to work till you're dead for a room and a bed
Was the reason I left Mullingar

(?) this city (?)
(?)
Ah, but when (?)
(?)

(Refrain)

(?) working (?) neverending (?)
(?) shovel and pick, there's no (?)
And when you're not working, you're (?)
(?)

(Refrain)

All of you hear that fine fortune
(?) to tell (?) the tale
Each morning the (?)
(?)

So young men of Ireland take warning
(?) will find
(?) gold at the end of the rainbow
(?) left behind

(Refrain)

(?) gold at the end of the rainbow
(?) left behind

Farewell Ye Colliery Workers

Refrain:
Farewell ye colliery workers, your muffler and your cap
Farewell ye Ronda valley girls, we never will come back
The mines they are a-closing and the valleys they are doomed
There's no work in Llaronda, boys, we'll be in London soon

My father was a miner and his father was before him
They were always proud to work below the ground
But since (?) dropped the axe, all the lads have got the sack
And away to work in England we are bound

(Refrain)

No more the chapel's singing, for that long ago has left us
No more the miners (?) the public house
Since the pitwheels are a-stopping, all the lads have got the sacking
And away to work in England we are bound

(Refrain)

(?) and (?)
O the Ronda valley surely now is doomed
O we can no longer wait while Parliament debates
So a fond farewell I'll bid to all of you

(Refrain)

(Refrain)

There's no work in Llaronda, boys, we'll be in London soon

Soldiers in Dreams

Soldiers in dreams are like lovers who come without warning
And take you by surprise when you think you must make it alone
Ah but sooner or later their presence is only a memory
But you know that without them you never could roll back the stone

And as lovers lie sleeping I find myself travelling towards you
The morning arises, the wind is as soft as a sigh
And whatever's before me is nothing to what I have come through
The pain and the passion, the tears, the laughs and the life

Now my darling once told me that loving is better than living
But I told her survival for me was the easier game
And I couldn't live with her, now if I can't live without her
I thought I'd feel different, somehow I still feel the same

And if lovers are losers then what price the game we are playing?
What price the man who has not got the money to pay?
And the silence of ages, like praying, seems just an illusion
For the lost and the lonely, those who have nothing to say

Now Romeo tells me that Juliet would die without him
And Ophelia's crazy for Hamlet who wants to be king
And away in the distance Mark Antony loves Cleopatra
While Portia sits silent, soliloquizing in the wing

Soldiers in dreams are like lovers who come without warning
And take you by surprise when you think you must make it alone
Ah but sooner or later their presence is only a memory
But you know that without them you never could roll back the stone

The Fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, she heard a young man calling,
My girl, they're sending you away
For you stole Trevalyan's corn so the young might see the morn
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay

Refrain:
Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched a small free bird fly
O our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing
Now it's lonely round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, she heard a young man calling,
O nothing matters, Mary, when you're free
Against the famine and the crown I rebelled, they ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity

(Refrain)

By a lonely harbor wall, she watched the last hour falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
But she'll wait and hope and pray for her love in Botany Bay
Now it's lonely round the fields of Athenry

(Refrain)

(Refrain)

It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry

Cock of the North

O cock of the north, with a dream in his hand
My love has come home to this beautiful land
He burst through the door with his eyes like the sun
And his kitbag crammed full of the treasures he's won

A coral from Broome and a tall Darwin tale
A cram and a pal and the jaws of a whale
My kitchen is full with the smell of the sea
And the leafy green fishes my love brings to me

O tumble your treasures from Darwin's ruin
And fill with your pleasure this neat little room
With the sun of the morning ablaze on his chest
My love has come home from the north of northwest

And deep in our bed we will lie and bring peace
We'll kiss and we'll listen to the wind and the sea
Warm as the summer we'll live winter long
My love has come home like King Solomon's song

O cock of the north, with a dream in his hand
My love has come home to this beautiful land
He burst through the door with his eyes like the sun
And his kitbag crammed full of the treasures he's won

The Man from the Daily Mail

Oh Ireland is a very funny place, sir
It's a strained and a troubled land
And the Irish are a bloody funny race, sir
Every girl's in (?)
Every doggie has a tricoloured ribbon
Tied firmly to its tail
And it wouldn't be surprisin if there'd be another Risin
Said the man from the Daily Mail

Refrain:
O every bird, upon me word, is singing treble
"I'm a rebel!"
Every hen and egg are laying handgrenades over there, sir
I declare, sir
And every cock in the farmyard stock
Crows a triumph for the Gael
And it wouldn't be surprisin if there'd be another Risin
Said the man from the Daily Mail

Now the other day I travelled down to Clare, sir
Twas quite on an old boreen
There were squaddies training everywhere, sir
Dressed in orange, white and green
They were marching to a German goosestep
They whistled "Grainne Bhail"
O I'm shaking in me shoes as I'm sending out the news
Said the man from the Daily Mail

(Refrain)

Now this place is teeming with sedition
O it's Sinn fein through and through
All the peelers have joined the local units
And the password's "Sinn Fein" too
Every doggie has a tricoloured ribbon
Tied firmly to its tail
And (?)
Said the man from the Daily Mail

(Refrain)

Oh Ireland is a very funny place, sir
It's a strained and a troubled land
And the Irish are a bloody funny race, sir
Every girl's in (?)
Every doggie has a tricoloured ribbon
Tied firmly to its tail
And it wouldn't be surprisin if there'd be another Risin
Said the man from the Daily Mail

(Refrain)

And it wouldn't be surprisin if there'd be another Risin
Said the man from the Daily Mail

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