The Rollicking Boys Around Tandragee
Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney
Location: New Edition, page 106 / 107
Good luck to all here now, barring the cat
That sits in the corner there smelling a rat.
O wheest your philandering girls and behave,
And saving your presence, I’ll chant you a stave.
I come from the land where the pritties grow big
And the boys neat and handy can swirl in a jig,
And the girls they would charm your heart for to see
Those darling colleens around Tandragee
Chorus
So, here’s to the boys who are happy and gay,
Singing and dancing and tearing away.
Rollicksome, frolicsome, frisky and free,
We’re the rollicking boys around Tandragee.
No doubt you have heard of Killarney, I’m sure,
And sweet Inishowen for a drop of the pure.
Dublin’s the place for the strawberry beds,
And Donnybrook Fair for the cracking of heads.
Have you e’er seen and Irishman dancing palltóg,
How he faces his partner and turns up his bróg?
He shakes at the buckle and bends at the knee.
They’re wonderful dancers in Tandragee.
Chorus
Now the oul’ jaunting-car is an elegant joult,
And Derry’s the place that is famed for a hoult.
Among the green bushes that grow in Tyrone,
And the County Fermanagh for muscle and bone.
But for feasting and dancing and fun at the fair
Sure there’s no one can compare with the Rakes of Kildare.
Green Erin my country’s the gem of the sea,
But the gem of oul’ Ireland is Tandragee.
Chorus
O where is the man, either Christian or Turk,
Could equal the boul’ Robert Emmet or Burke?
Or where the lawyer can speak up like Dan?
The divil another, bad luck to the wan.
And where is the singer can sing like Tom Moore,
Whose melodies charm all dull care from our dure.
But we’ll beat them all yet boys, and that you will see,
For we’re raring fine fellows round Tandragee.
Chorus