The Rollicking Boys Around Tandragee
Source: Where The Linnets Sings (2026)
Location: Track 42
Good luck to all here now, barring the cat
That sits in the corner there smelling a rat.
Boys, wheesht your philandering girls and behave,
And saving your favours, I’ll chant you a stave.
I come from the land where the pritties grow big
Where the boys neat and handy can whirl in a jig,
And the girls it would charm your heart for to see,
The darling colleens around Tandragee.
Chorus:
So here’s to the boys that’s so happy and gay,
Singing and dancing and tearing away.
Rollicksome, frollicksome, 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 breaking of heads.
Did you ever seen an Irishman dancing palltóg,
How he’d face up his partner and turn up his bróg?
He’d twist at the buckle and bend at the knee.
Ach, they’re wonderful dancers in Tandragee.
Chorus
O where is the man, either Christian or Turk,
Could equal our brave Robert Emmet or Burke?
Or where is the speaker can speak up like Dan?
Ach, devil another, bad luck to the one.
Or where was the singer could sing like Tom Moore,
His melodies charmed all dull care from our dure.
But we’ll beat them all yet, and that you will see,
For we’re raring fine boys round Tandragee.
Chorus
It’s the oul’ jaunting-car is an elegant joult,
And Derry’s a place that is famed for a hoult.
Among the green bushes that grow in Tyrone,
And the County Fermanagh for muscle and bone.
For courtin’ and blarney and fun at the fair,
There’s no one could equal the Rakes of Kildare.
Green Erin my country’s the gem of the sea,
But the gem of green Erin is Tandragee.
Chorus