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Now, old Ireland 'tis the place for a frolic,
The boys and the girls they are frisky;
They never can feel melancholy,
They're devils for tippling the whisky.
Norma, that buxom young creature,
That lately been raising my dander,
I met her going down to McGuffin's
To borrow the loan of a gander.
The goose and the gander were courting,
She sold them to Paddy McCarthy,
To buy her a pair of white slippers,
To go to McLaughlin's party.
Sure it's well the floor, Peter O'Laherty,
Shake your leg, Billy McCarthy;
Dance to your partners, ye devils,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
For a week or two I was preparing,
Determined inside for to shank it;
Put a pair of new tails on my coat,
With a piece I got off of the blanket.
Sure I turned the corduroy breeches
I borrowed from Phelan O'Flaherty,
And put a new patch on the seat
To cut a big swell at the party.
Sure it's well the floor, Peter O'Laherty,
Shake your leg, Billy McCarthy;
Dance to your partners, ye devils,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
Now, they hired a fiddler and piper,
And stuck them on top of a barrel,
With a full jug of whisky between them,
To keep them from having a quarrel.
When the piper struck up,
The fiddler another tune started;
They melted the soles off their brogues,
Oh, at Mother McLaughlin's party.
Sure it's well the floor, Peter O'Laherty,
Shake your leg, Billy McCarthy;
Dance to your partners, ye devils,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
Tim Fagan got out for a reel,
Tread on everyone's corns;
To try for to stop him was worse
Than to catch a mad bull by the horns.
He skinned Ginny Hagerty's shins,
Tore the skirts off of Winnie O'Dougherty;
Exposed the dear creature's fat limbs,
Oh, to all the gay boys at the party.
Sure it's well the floor, Peter O'Laherty,
Shake your leg, Billy McCarthy;
Dance to your partners, ye devils,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
Now, while they were dancing and singing Tom,
They bust in the door, sir;
The ducks and the drakes and the pigs,
Oh, they all come flying in on the floor, sir.
The old sows set up such a grunting,
The girls they laughed merry and hearty;
And the big hog came down the middle,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
Sure it's well the floor, Peter O'Laherty,
Shake your leg, Billy McCarthy;
Dance to your partners, ye devils,
At Mother McLaughlin's party.
Now, the party was brought to an ending,
The fiddler fell drunk from the table;
They carried him home on a shutter door,
Out by the door of the stable.
With an elegant fight underway,
With a fraction from Phelan O'Flaherty;
And I'll be damned if they didn't have to pay,
For the frolic we had at the party.
Sung by Jack Houlihan of Pouch Cove, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
