| lyric | 1. Come pay attention for a while,
My good friends one and all
And I’ll sing to you a verse or two
About a famous ball.
Now this ball was given by some friends
Who lived down in Ashe Street
In a certain house in the Liberties
Where the ragme used to meet.
2. Well the names were called at seven o'clock
And every man was on the spot
And to show respect to the management
Every ragman brought his mot.
Now Imust admit that I brought mine
At twenty-five minutes to eight
And the first to stand up was Kieran Grace
For to tell me that I was late.
3. Then up jumps Humpy Sudelum
And he says ""I think somehow
By the way yis are going on tonight
Yis are looking for a row.
Now look at here Grace if you want your face
You'd better not shout or bawl,
There's aim of hard chaws to be here tonight
To respect the Ragman’s Ball.""
4. Then we all set down some fish and chips
And every man was there ‘
Oh and at the place of honour
Billy Boland took the-chair.
Well he swiped the chair and sold it to
An oul one in Carmen Hall
And he danced on the face of Kieran Grace
The night of the Ragman‘s Ball.
5. Oh! says my one, ""You're a quare one now
And Billy, you're hard to beat,""
When up jumps Liza Boland
And she told her to hold her prate;
But my one made a clout at her
And she missed her and struck the wall
And the two of them went in the ambulance
The night of the Ragman‘s Ball.
Now to make the thing a swell affair
6. We brought friends quite a few;
We brought up Blind Gort Whelan
And Big Dan Kenny too.
And the gallant Jack Tar
Smoked his cigar
And he slipped coming through the hall
And he lost a new bag and all his swag
The night of the Ragman's Ball.
7. Now to keep the house alive, my boys,
We brought musicians too
Oh! we brought up Tommy Reynolds-
And his old tin whistle too,
Well he played that night with all his might
Till coming on to dawn
But we couldn't find any to dance with Dan Kenny
The night of the Ragman‘s Ball.
8. For eating we had plenty there
As much as we could hold.
We drank Brady's loop-line porter
Until round the floor we rolled.
In the midst of the confu-si-on
Someone shouted for a song
When up jumps oul Dunlavin and sings
'Keep rolling your barrel along.‘
9. Then we all sat down to some ham-parings
When everything was quiet
And for broken noses Imust say
We had a lovely night.
Black eyes they were in great demand
Not to mention split heads and all.
So if anyone wants to commit suicide
Let them come to the Ragman's Ball. |