Finnegan’s Wake
Irish Traditional, 1800’s· Irish Songs · p.390
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Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street; a gentle Irishman mighty odd
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He had a brogue both rich and sweet, an' to rise in the world he carried a hod
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You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way with the love for the liquor poor Tim was
born
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To help him on his way each day, he'd a drop of the craythur every morn
Chorus:
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Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner 'round the floor yer trotters
shake
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Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake
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One morning Tim got rather full, his head felt heavy which made him shake
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C
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and they carried him home his corpse to
wake
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Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet, and laid him out upon the bed
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A bottle of whiskey at his feet and a barrel of porter at his head (Chorus)
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His friends assembled at the wake, and Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
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First she brought in tay and cake, then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
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Biddy O'Brien began to cry, "Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
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Tim avourneen, why did you die?", "Will ye hold your gob?" said Paddy McGee
(Chorus)
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Then Maggie O'Connor took up the job, "Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm
sure"
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Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawling on the floor
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Then the war did soon engage, t'was woman to woman and man to man
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Shillelagh law was all the rage and a row and a ruction soon began (Chorus)
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Mickey Maloney ducked his head when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
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It missed, and falling on the bed, the liquor scattered over Tim
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Bedad he revives, see how he rises, Timothy rising from the bed
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Saying Whittle your whiskey around like blazes, t'underin' blazes, do ye think I'm
dead?
(Chorus Twice)