Irish Rover

"The Irish Rover" is an Irish folk song about a magnificent though improbable sailing ship that reaches an unfortunate end.

The song describes a gigantic ship with "twenty-seven masts", a colourful crew and varied types of cargo in enormous amounts. The verses grow successively more extravagant about the wonders of the great ship. The seven-year voyage comes to a disastrous end when the ship sinks. The narrator becomes the only survivor, "the last of the Irish Rover", leaving no one else alive to contradict the tale.

Lyrics
These lyrics are based on the version performed by the Longest Johns Feat. The Pyrates in their collaboration music video. Their lyrics were based almost entirely on the version sung by The Dubliners, found here.

On the Fourth of July, 1806

We set sail from the sweet Cove of Cork

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

For the Grand City Hall in New York

'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore and aft

And oh, how the wild winds drove her

She stood several blasts, she had twenty seven masts

And they called her The Irish Rover

We had one million bales of old billie goats' tails

We had two million buckets of stones

We had three million sides of old blind horses hides

We had four million packets of bones

We had five million hogs and six million dogs

Seven million barrels of porter

We had eight million bags of the best Sligo rags

In the hold of the Irish Rover

There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute

When the ladies lined up for a set

He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille

Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet

With his smart witty talk, he was cock of the walk

And he rolled the dames under and over

They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance

That he sailed in The Irish Rover

There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee

There was Hogan from County Tyrone

And a chap from Falkirk who was scared stiff of work

And a chap from Westmeath called Malone

There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule

And fighting Bill Tracy from Dover

There was Dudey O'Claire who was strong as a bear

As the skipper of the Irish Rover

We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out

And the ship lost its way in the fog

And that whole of the crew was reduced down to two

Just myself and the Captain's old dog

Then the ship struck a rock, boy! What a shock

The bulkhead was turned right over

Turned nine times around and the poor dog was drowned

I'm the last of The Irish Rover