Belfast maid's lamentation for the loss of her sweetheart/Paddy O Blarney

For other versions of this work, see Paddy O Blarney.

Divider from 'The Belfast Maid's Lamentation', a chapbook printed in Glasgow in 1803

PADDY O BLARNEY.

WRITTEN AND SUNG BY MR DIBDIN.

Is't my country you'd know, I'm an Irishman born,
And they christen'd me Paddy O Blarney,
In hay-making time I stept over one morn,
All the way from the Lakes of Kilkarney:
Turn'd my hand to whatever came in my way,
To be sure while the sun shin'd I didn't make hay.

SPOKEN
Well then, you know the wives and daughters
of the farmers won't, well they won't,
Have plenty of cause to remember the day,
When first they saw Paddy O Blarney.

Then what does I do, the next calling I seeks,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilkarney,
I cry mack'rel alive, that were caught for three weeks,
Ah! let alone Paddy O Blarney:
Then fresh gather'd strawberries so found & so sweet,
With just half a dozen a top fit to eat.

SPOKEN.
Ah, madam, you need not examine them; bless
your two good looking eyes; they are full to
the bottom, paper and all———"Well, I'll
trust to you, I dare say you won't cheat me,"
So I coaxes her up, and her calf makes her cheat,
Ah! fait, let alone Paddy Blarney.

Next I turn'd to a chairman and got a good job,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilkarney;
I harangued at a famous election the mob,
Ah ! let alone Paddy O Blarney;
The to see how his honour and I did cajole,
He knock'd down his flats with words, and I mine with my pole.

SPOKEN.
Then you know when they came to chair him,
I was no longer, you see, an odd man, there
was a pair of chairmen.
And sure such a pair was ne'er seen by my soul,
As his honour and Paddy O Blarney.

But this notion of greatness was none of the worst,
Oh! the world for the Lakes of Kilkarney,
Having play'd 2d fiddle, I thought I'd play 1st,
Can't ye let alone Paddy O Blarney;
So swearing to plunder and never to speak,
I my qualifications took out and turn'd Greek.

SPOKEN.
Ah! to be sure we did not make a pretty dove-
house of our Pharoah Bank; let me see, me
pidgeoned, ay fait, and plucked them completely too.
Four tradesmen & six bankers' clerks in one week,
Will you let alone Paddy O Blarney.

A big man in all circles so gay and polite,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilkarney:
I found one larnt grown up Jolman to write,
Just to finish gay Paddy O Blarney;
I first learnt my name, till so fond of it grown,
I don't say I'd better have let it alone

SPOKEN.
But by my soul and conscience, it had like to
have finished me in good earnest; for you see
I———just———wrote
Another Joleman's signature stead of my own,
What a devil of a Pady O Blarney.

But since fate didn't chuse for to noose me that day,
Ah the world for the Lakes O Kilkarney,
With a Venus of ninety I next ran away,
What a fine dashing Paddy O Blarney;
So marriage turn'd out the best noose of the two,
The old soul's gone to heav'n, I'm as rich as a Jew.

SPEAKING
So that if any Jolyman has an occasion for a
Friend, or a Lady for a Lover, or, in short,
if any body should want to be disencumber'd
of the unneasiness of a wife or a daughter, of
a purse of any such kind and civil service,
that can be perform'd by a gentleman at large
that has nothing to do;
Let me recommend Paddy O Blarney.