This from the singing of Mikey Kelleher - fisherman and curragh maker originally from Quilty, West Clare, but when recorded in the 1970s, a retired building worker then living in Deptford, South East London.
Jim Carroll

DELANEY'S CHICKEN

Now Delaney, from the market bought a fowl a month ago,
If he find the man that sold it he'll kill him with a blow;
Delaney bought this chicken, being of a tender breed
And of a more deceitful bird you never heard agreed.

So when they sought to pluck it, their efforts was in vain,
Their hands were torn and blistered and their muscles they were strained,
And resting of this chicken, they put him down to stew,
If you want to see Delaney crack, cry cock-a-doodle-doo.

So Delaney bought this chicken for to give us all a spread
And after they arriving home they tried to pull off his head,
They ordered picks and shovels, they got twisted up like tin,
They tried to carve the chicken but they couldn't break the skin.

So this bird must have been crowing since they built the Tower of Abel (Babel)
He was fed by Cain and Abel and he lived in Noah's Stable,
All the shots and shells was fired in the field of Waterloo,
Could not penetrate or dislocate the tilugated, armour-plated, double-breasted, iron-chested cock-a-doodle-doo.

So they borrowed Daley's rammer, by which he rammed the stones,
Thinking that when tapped, would break the tender chicken's bones,
But the first one has rebounded like an India-rubber ball,
And knocked twelve yards of coping out of Muligan's garden wall.

So this bird must have been crowing since.....etc.

Oh the Dundee Extra Gunners came to excavate the thing,
And the sword he carved the Russian with while light three yards of string (???)
Old Tim brought the Davey Miner, through him they showed daylight,
While blowing up himself and the chicken with a pound of dynamite.

So to scrape the walls for chicken, it wasn't easy work,
It wasn't easy to know which was chicken or which was Burke,
But they found a leg of chicken on a friendly blacksmith's head,
And a pair of everlasting heels upon my boots it made.

So this bird it must have been crowing since....etc.