Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - The Juice of the Barley

In the sweet country Lim'rick, one cold winter's night
All the turf fires were burning when I first saw the light;
And a drunken old midwife went tipsy with joy
As she danced round the floor with her slip of a boy,

cho: Singing ban-ya-na mo if an-ga-na
And the juice of the barley for me.

Well when I was a gossoon of eight years old or so
With me turf and me primer to school I did go.
To a dusty old school house without any door,
Where lay the school master blind drunk on the floor,

At the learning I wasn't such a genius I'm thinking,
But I soon bet the master entirely at drinking,
Not a wake or a wedding for five miles around,
But meself in the corner was sure to be found.
One Sunday the priest thread me out from the altar
Saying you'll end up your days with your neck in a halter;
And you'll dance a fine jig between heaven and hell
And his words they did frighten me the truth for to tell,

So the very next morning as the dawn it did break
I went down to the vestry the pledge for to take,
And there in that room sat the priests in a bunch
Round a big roaring fire drinking tumblers of punch,

Well from that day to this I have wandered alone
I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none,
With the sky for me roof and the earth for me floor,
And I'll dance out my days frinking whiskey galore,

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk

[Bartoniusz28]

Fine song :) I had some juice already as a rule :)

[lorgain2]

And a drunken oul mid-wife went tipsy with joy,

as she danced round the floor with a slip of a boy.

Not the AA`s most poular song.

[fluffyxsama]

The chorus goes "Singing bainne na mbó do na gamhna, and the juice of the barley for me".

[tachuman]

What a great song - I must learn it on my fiddle!

[sirmat54]

flippen brilliant

[alchoholic20]

I drink a fifth of whiskey a night and I tell you my friends its the only way to be! Drinking may hurt your liver and eventually kill you but my grandfather drank until he was fifty hard core and he is 73 but he has lunge cancer and no liver problems WTF! Im talking about a man who chugged whiskey by the pint and drank wine by the gallon well i hope i get liver cancer because I have the right to choose my death.

[tspc2186]

@Khanstorm Gamhna means "calves" in Gaelic

[JBurdoo]

One of my favorites!

[vastedda99]

There will never be another Tommy Makem-R.I.P.....BTW, Happy St. Paddy's Day everybody. Erin Go Bragh!

[rmm413d]

Liam was such a great singer. RIP.

[spudseamus]

Calf!

[DwnAszPunk]

yeah it's got half dressed girls with big butts dancing around with people spraying champagne all over them and cruising in low-riders flashing gang signs.