Lyr Add: Tullinahaw (Percy French)

Subject: Lyr Add: TULLINAHAW (Percy French)
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 10 Jul 01 - 08:23 AM

A Percy French number, from the singing of Dick Hogan.

TULLINAHAW
It was Sergeant Kilray of the Cavan police
Was heard for to say "Crime's on the increase
And the worst of the lot for breakin' the law
Are the boys that you've got in Tullinahaw
Cattle they're drivin' tarable tarable
Wantin' the whole of Ireland arable
Mischief that soon would be irreparable
If it's not squinch'd in Tullinahaw"
So Sergeant Kilray and Constable Flynn
They started away that night to begin
Bringin' a taste of order and law
For man and for baste in Tullinahaw

Well, now they lay by the wall and they kep' wide awake
Till they saw a man haulin' a cow to the lake
"Honest man tell me now is that cow all your own?"
"Is it me own a cow that's all skin and bone?
Sure she belongs to the Widda Geraghty
Home I was drivin' her from charity"
"Tell me," says Flynn, with some hilarity
"Why are you comin' from Tullinahaw?"
So Sergeant Kilray was heard for to say
"This case is suspicious in every way"
Flynn said he saw a breach of the law
In drivin' a cow from Tullinahaw

Well, the trial came on and the prisoner swore
He was doin' a neighbourly act and no more
For the cow was no use and the widda that day
Had given him a bob for to take it away
"Stop!" said the Judge "You've made no case of it.
That is a lie, sir, on the face of it.
Perjury too there's every trace of it.
Years they will miss you in Tullinahaw."
So Sergeant Kilray and Constable Flynn
They made no delay in runnin' him in
An' there for a year he sits in the straw
Lamentin' the grandeurs of Tullinahaw

Well, when they brought back the cow says the Widda "Ochone!
How I wish them police would leave people alone.
For if I could have proved the oul' reptile was drowned
I'd ha' got compinsation - aye - nine or ten pound.
Instid of the money to help further me
Here the oul' baste is back to bother me.
When John comes out I know he'll murder me,
Gettin' him took in Tullinahaw"
An' Sergeant Kilray and Constable Flynn
They both of them grey and elderly men
Still tell how they brought back order and law.
'Tis a different story in Tullinahaw!