About four years ago I was digging the land
With my brogues on my feet and my spade in my hand.
Says I to myself ‘what a pity to see
Such a fine strapping lad footing turf in Tralee’.

So I buttered my brogues and shook hands with my spade,
And I went to the fair like a dashing young blade,
When up comes a sergeant and asks me to ’list,
‘Arra, sergeant, a grá, put a bob in my fist’.

‘O! then here is the shilling, as we’ve got no more,
When you get to head-quarters you’ll get half a score.’
‘Arra, quit your kimeens,’ ses I, ‘sergeant, good-bye,
You’d not wish to be quartered, and neither would I’.

And the first thing they gave me it was a red coat,
With a side strap of leather to tie round my throat.
They gave me a quare thing, I asked what was that,
And they told me it was a cockade for my hat.

The next thing they gave me, they called it a gun,
With powder and shot and a place for my thumb;
And first she spit fire and then she spit smoke,
Lord, she gave a great lep and my shoulder near broke.

The next place they sent me was down to the sea,
On board of a warship bound for the Crimea.
Three sticks in the middle all rowled round with sheets,
Faith, she walked thro’ the water without any feet.

When at Balaklava we landed quite sound,
Both cold, wet and hungry we lay on the ground.
Next morning for action the bugle did call,
And we got a hot breakfast of powder and ball.

Sure, it’s often I thought of my name and my home
And the days that I spent cutting turf, och mavrone,
The balls were so thick and the fire was so hot,
I lay down in the ditch, boys, for fear I’d be shot.

We fought at The Alma, likewise Inkermann,
But the Russians, they whaled us at The Redan.
In scaling the walls there, myself lost an eye,
And a big Russian bullet ran off with my thigh.

It was there I lay bleeding, stretched on the cold ground,
Heads, legs and arms were scattered all round.
Says I, ‘if my mam or my cleaveens were nigh
They’d bury me decent and raise a loud cry’.

They brought me the doctor, who soon staunched my blood
And he gave me an elegant leg made of wood.
They gave me a medal and tenpence a day,
Contented with Sheelah, I’ll live on half-pay.