Christy Moore – Lawless lyrics

He was Lawless by name, Lawless by nature,
He was trouble right from the start.
Hard as nails, runnin' wild through the streets
He was breakin' his poor mother's heart.
Nature played a trick on Lawless
and the humour of nature is cruel.
He grew up as we all had expected -
into a dangerous fool.

He was a hard man, a man for all seasons,
He was always out for a fight.
He couldn't hold drink but still he'd get plastered
in Clark's every Saturday night,
strip to the vest and challenge the best
until the Guards they were called to come fast,
and they'd lock him away for the rest of the day
and let him out on the Sunday for Mass.

Oh one night he went down
to the Ringsend Regatta
where he met up with the bold Dolly Platts
She wasn't exactly what you'd call beauty,
but she was the belle of our flats.
A whirlwind romance and Dolly took a flier
with Lawless she would settle down
It was pure coincidence three months before
there was a yankee destroyer in town.

And the couple were blessed with one of god's miracles
before six months had elapsed
Dolly gave birth to a nine-pound black baby
and Lawless was fit to collapse
She swore she'd never been touched by another
and Lawless took her at her word,
and the neighbours exclaimed, 'he's the spit of his father, and the cuckoo is a wonderful bird.'

Oh now Lawless stays in and looks after his baby
while Dolly goes out for the night.
The old gossips all say she's free in her ways
and their evil rumours ran rife.
When Lawless heard this he waited for Dolly
in the bridge where the river runs low.
Noone will ever know what happened next,
but Dolly drowned in the water below.

Some say he's crazy and more say he's evil,
everyone says that he's mad.
Noone will defend him, he was no angel,
but I'll tell you he wasn't all bad.
They've locked him away for the rest of his natural
never again will he see
down the back of Ringsend
there's a lonely child playing
where the Liffey flows into the sea.