Finnegan's Wake - The High Kings

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street

A gentle Irishman, mighty odd

He had a brogue both rich and sweet

An' to rise in the world he carried a hod

You see he’d a sort of a tipplers way

But the love for the liquor poor Tim was born

And to help him on his way each day

He’d a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah, now dance with your partner

Around the floor, your trotters shake

Isn’t it the truth, I tell you?

Lots of fun at Finnegan’s Wake

One morning Tim felt rather full

His head felt heavy, which made him shake

He fell off his ladder and he broke his skull

So they carried him home, his corpse to wake

They wrapped him up in a nice, clean sheet

And they laid him out there upon the bed

With a bottle of whiskey at his feet

And a barrel of porter at his head

His friends assembled at the wake

And Mrs Finnegan called for lunch

First she served them tay and cake

Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch

Biddy O’Brien began to cry:

«Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see

Tim avourneen, why did you die?»

«Will ye hould your gob?»

said Paddy McGee

Ginny O’Harriton, she took the job:

«Biddy» says she «you're wrong, I’m sure»

Biddy gave her a clapper upon the gob

And sent her sprawlin' on the floor

T’was then the war did soon engage

It was woman to woman and man to man

Shillelagh law, did not engage

And a row and a ruction soon began

Then Mickey Maloney raised up his head

And a barrel of whiskey flew at him

He slipped, and landed on the bed

And the whisky splattered over poor old Tim

Bedad he revives, now see him rise

Tim Finnegan rise and up in the bed

Throwin' the whiskey around the place

«T'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I’m dead?»