Sorry about shooting a blank; I keep hitting enter when tab is appropriate. Hm@#ph!?xxx

Now then:

Can't remember who recorded this. Try title search "Fille-me-o-re-ae" or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Sometimes sounds like filly-rye-oh, etc.

In eighteen hundred 'n' farty-two
I left the home me faither knew;
Bad cess to the luck that brought me through
To workin' on the railway.

Filly rye oh, rye oh, ay a [three times]
[Then repeat fourth line of verse].

In eighteen hundred 'n' farty-three,
'Tis this I met sweet Biddy McGee,
An elegant wife she made for me,
For workin' on the railway.

In ... farty-six,
They pelted me with stones & bricks;
I was in an awful fix
For ....

In ... farty-seven,
Sweet Biddy McGee, she went ta hiven;
She left one child, she left eliven,
Workin' on the railway.

In ... farty-eight,
I larned to drink me w'iskey straight;
An elegant drink it seemed to make
For workin' on the railway.

Also don't forget that "Wild Colonial Boy" is about a born Irishman who goes Down Under and becomes a bush ranger. Gets killed of course; otherwise why have a song? Oh, and it used to be illegal to sing it in Australia, but that was a long time gone.

Stan Rogers [Rodgers? can't recall] of Canada wrote "The House of Orange," about an Irishman who moves to Canada. Then the local IRA rep calls to get a donation, and the fellow has had it with "The Struggle" & doesn't want any part of it anymore.

"I took back my hand, and I showed him the door;
No dollar of mine would I part with this day
For fuelin' the engines of bloody cruel war,
In my forefather's home far away." Etc., etc. and etc. Long but moving.

If you can't find any of these gems on record or CD or edison cylinder or whatever, I could send you a tape or CD of it/them.

Yours

Chicken Charlie
carter_timelines@hotmail.com