Dubliners – Finnegan's Wake lyrics

Finnegan's wake

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street,
A gentleman Irish mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet,
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod
Tim had a sort of a tipplers way
With the love of the liquor he was born
And to send the man away each day,
A drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner
round the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't/Isn't it truth I've told you,
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full,
his head felt heavy which made him shake
He fell of a ladder and broke his skull,
So they carried him home his corpse to wake
They wrapped him up in a nice clean sheet,
They laid him out 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 Misses Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake,
then pipes, tobacco and brandy punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry,
"Such a lovely corpse, did you ever see,
Tim, auvreem! Why did you die?",
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Merry Murphy took up the job,
"O Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
and left her sprawling on the floor
Civil did there engage,
t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage
and a row and a ruction soon began

Mickey Maloney ducked his head
when a bottle of whiskey flew at him
He ducked, and landing on the bed,
the whiskey scattered over Tim
Bedad he revived see how he rises
Tim Finnegan rising in the bed
Saying:" Whirl you whiskey around like blazes,
Me thunderin' Jesus, do ye think I'm dead?"