Irish Rover

Irish Rover - The Clancy Brothers/Tommy Makem

In the year

Of our Lord

Eighteen hundred and six

We set sail

From the port quay of Cork

We were sailing away

With a cargo of bricks

For the grand city hall in New York

We'd a near leaking craft

She was rigged fore and aft

And how the trade

Winds drove her

She had twenty three masts

And she stood several blasts

And they called her the Irish rover

There was Bobby McGee

From the banks of the Leith

There was Hogan

From County Tyrone

There was John D McGirk

Who was scared stiff of work

And a chap from Westmeath named Malone

We had slugger o'toole

Who was drunk as a rule

And fighting bill Tracy from Dover

And your man Mick McCann

From the banks of the Bann

Was the skipper

Of the Irish rover

We had one million bags

Of the best sligo rags

We had two million barrels of bone

We had three million bales

Of old nanny goats' tails

We had four million barrels of stone

We had five million hogs

And six million dogs

Seven million barrels of porter

We had eight million sides

Of old blind horses' hides

In the hold of the Irish rover

We had sailed seven years

When the measles broke out

And the ship lost her way in the fog

Red fog

And the whale of the crew

Was reduced down to two

'Twas myself and the captain's old dog

Then the ship hit a rock

Oh Lord what a shock

I nearly tumbled over

Turned nine times around

And the poor old dog was drowned

I'm

Stop the Irish rover