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In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and six,
We set sail from the cold sea of Cork;
We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks,
For the grand city hall of New York.
We'd an elegant craft, we was late for a nap,
And how the trade winds drove her;
She had twenty-seven masts and she stood several blasts,
And they called her the Irish Rover.
There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee,
There was Hogan from County Tyrone;
There was Johnny McGurk who was scared stiff of work,
And a chap from West Meade called Malone.
Oh there was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule,
And fighting Bill Casey from Dover;
And your man Nick McCann from the banks of the Bann,
Was the skipper of the Irish Rover.
We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags,
We had two million barrels of bones;
We had three million bales of old nanny goat tails,
We had four million barrels of stones.
We had five million hogs, six million dogs,
Seven million barrels of porter;
We had eight million sides of old blind horses' hides,
In the hold of the Irish Rover.
We had sailed several years when the measles broke out,
And the ship lost its way in the fog;
And the whole of the crew was reduced down to two,
Just meself and the captain's old dog.
Then the ship struck a rock. Oh, Lord, what a shock!
It turned the damned thing over;
It turned nine times around, and the poor old dog was drowned —
I'm the last of the Irish Rover.
This variant was recorded for the Ryan's Fancy CBC television series with Fergus O'Byrne, Dermot O'Reilly and Phyllis Morrissey onboard the M.V. Bonavista on her final voyage down the coast of Labrador in 1986.
See more songs by Ryan's Fancy.
A variant was also recorded by Harry Hibbs (Harry Hibbs At The Caribou Club, trk#5, 1968, Arcsound, Ltd., St. John's, NL).
See more songs by Harry Hibbs.
The YouTube variant below features a recording by Sons Of Erin (The Sons Of Erin: Volume 1, Alive 'N' Kickin', trk#1, 1991, Erinson Music, St. John's, NL).
See more songs by Sons Of Erin.
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Notes On Guitar Tabs:
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All guitar tabs have been contributed by visitors to this site and represent their interpretation of the tune. We are unable to verify their accuracy.
In the [G] year of our Lord eighteen hundred and [C] six,
We set [G] sail from the cold sea of [D] Cork;
We were [G] sailing away with a cargo of [C] bricks,
For the [G] grand city [D] hall of New [G] York.
We'd an elegant craft, we was [D] late for a nap,
And [G] how the trade winds [C] drove her;
She had [G] twenty-seven masts and she stood several [C] blasts,
And they [G] called her the Irish [D] Rover.[G]
