From the singing of the great Luke Cheevers.

THE RAGMAN'S WAKE. - (Tommy Winters, Ash Street)

Come all you Party Parnellites from Cork Street and the Coombe,
If yis pay attention for a while, I'll tell yis very soon
I'd like to sing a shocking song and I'll make no mistake,
It's not about the ragman's ball; it's all about his wake.

Now you've all heard tell of the ragman's ball, it was a dreadful sight,
When wan fella he got stretched out through interfering in a fight,
So we went around collecting; a subscription for to make,
And we bought him a second-hand coffin boys, just to respect his wake.

So we sent out invitations to the neighbours near and far,
We sent for big Dan Kelly, blind Gort Whalin and Jack Tar,
We sent for Moscow Conroy ands his friends to bake a cake,
For the boy's they'd all feel hungry on the night of the Ragman's wake.

Now for eatables we had plenty we'd ham parings and pigs feet,
We had spare ribs and knucklebones, pigs' cheeks from Townsend Street,
But Kelly he got hungry so he started on the cake,
And got struck on the nose with a pig's cheekbone on the night of the ragman's wake.

There was lashings of Loopline porter, it came from a well-known spot,
And Fair Lannigan was the disher-out, assisted by his mot,
Some even tried to come the double event, 'cause it hadn't cost a make,
For everything was got on the slate, for the night of the ragman's wake.

Now Soodlum started to sing a song that night in the stately Room,
And he against the rules he started singing a song called Sailing in My Balloon,
Well he hadn't got the first verse sung when Garrigan that well known rake,
Sent him sailing through the window on the night of the ragman's wake.

Then up stood Paul O'Feeney, he considered himself a brick,
He wanted the loan of an umbrella to play the three-card trick.
Then some wan shouted, "that man is mad, throw him out or his neck I'll break,
Does he think he's at the Baldoyle race course, instead of a poor man's wake?"

Now the boys lay down to have a snooze, they slept with their clothes on,
And when they awoke the following morn, they found the corpse had gone,
Sure he'd went through all their pockets and the contents of them did take,
And he advertis'd for a few more hardchaws to go to a ragman's wake.