DARBY KELLY

My grandsire beat a drum so neat
His name was Darby Kelly-o
No lad so true at rat tat too
At roll call or reveille-o
When Marlboro's name first raised his fame
My granny beat the point of war
At Blenheim he, at Ramillie
Made ears to tingle near and far
For with his wrist he'd such a twist
The girls would leer you don't know how
They laughed and cried and sighed and died
To hear him beat his row dow dow

A son he had which was my dad
As tight a lad as any oh!
You e'er would know though you should go
From Chester to Kilkenny oh!
When great Wolf died, his country's pride
To arms my dapper father beat
Each dale and hill remembers still
How loud, how long, how strong, how neat
With each drumstick, he had the trick
The girls would leer, you don't know how
Their eyes would glisten, their ears would listen
To hear him beat his row dow dow

Yet e'er I wed, ne'er it be said
But that the foe I dare to meet
With Wellington, old Erin's son
To help to make them beat retreat
King Arthur once, or I'm a dunce
Was called the hero of the age
But what was him to he we see
The Arthur of the modern page
For by the powers, from Lisbon's towers
Their trophies bore to grace his brow
He made Nap prance right out of France
With his English, Irish, row dow dow


I'm aware there's other 'sanitized' versions of this but I believe this one to be the original, sung in Napoleonic times.