Bruce

I'd love to see that version - and, more particularly, the tune. The "Curren" is probably John Philpott Curran, an early 19th century Irish poplitical figure, to whom I have seen the song attributed. Its not that likely, I suspect.

Anyway, here's the verses I omitted. They fall between the third and fourth verses of the version I put in the DT.

***** Now I'll be cut up like a pie
And my nob from ny body be parted
"You're in the wrong box then" sez I
"For blast me if they're so hard-hearted
A chalk on the back of your neck
Is all that Jack Ketch dares to give you
Then mind not such trifles a feck
Sure why should the likes of them grieve you?
And now boys come tip up the deck

The cards being called for they played
Until Larry found one of them cheated
A dart at his napper he made
For the boy, he being easily heated
"Oh Ho by the hokey, ye thief
I will scuttle your nob with me daddle
You cheat me because I'm in grief
But soon I'll demolish your noddle
And leave you your claret to drink"

Then the clergy came in with his book
And he spoke him so smooth and so civil
Larry tipped him a Kilmainham look
And he pitched his big wig to the devil
Then sighing, he threw back his head
Fot to have a sweet drop of the bottle
And pitiful sighing he said
"Oh the hemp will be soon round me throttle
And choke me poor windpipe to death"

But sure its the best way to die
Oh the devil, its better than living
For now when the gallows is high
Then your journey is shorter to heaven
But what harasses Larry the most
And makes his poor soul melancholy Is he thinks of the time when his ghost
It will come in a sheet to sweet Molly! Oh sure, it will kill her alive!

The advantage of the abbreviated version is that you can get away without too much boring explanation! On the other hand, of course, it misses the best line in the song.

Frank Harte recorded the song for Topic many years ago. In his "Songs of Dublin" book, he writes:

"This is only one of a group of execution songs written in Newgate Cant or slang style somewhere around the 1780's, others being The Kilmainham Minuet, Luke Caffrey's Ghost and Larry's Ghost which, as promised in the seventh verse, comes in a sheet to sweet Molly. The King William, at the sight of which Larrry grew pale, was a statue which stood in College Green but which since has been blown up."

Presumably College Green was en route to the execution.

Regards