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Lanigan's Ball |
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Christy Moore |
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In the town of Athy, one Jeremy Lanigan battered away till he hadn't a shilling. |
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His father died, made him a man again, left him a farm and ten acres of ground. |
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Myself, to be sure, got invitations for the boys and girls I might ask. |
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Having been asked, friends and relations danced like bees around a sweet cask. |
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There was lashings of drink wine for the ladies, potatoes and cake bacon and tea. |
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Nolans and Dolans and all the O'Gradys, courting the girls and dancing away. |
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While songs went round as plenty as water, |
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The harps that are sounded through Tara's old hall, |
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Biddie Grey and the rat catcher's daughter singing away at Lanigan's ball. |
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CHORUS |
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Six long months I spent in Dublin, six long months doing nothing at all, |
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Six long months I spent in Dublin, learning to dance for Lanigan's ball. |
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She stepped out, I stepped in again. I stepped out and she stepped in again. |
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She stepped out, I stepped in again, learning to dance for Lanigan's ball. |
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They were doing all kinds of nonsensical dances all around in a whirligig. |
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Julie and I soon banished their nonsense, |
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Out on the floor for a reel and a jig. |
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How the girls all got mad at me for they thought the ceilings would fall. |
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I spent six months in Brook's Academy learning to dance for Lanigan's ball. |
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Well the boys were merry and the girls all hearty |
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Dancing around in their couples and groups. |
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An accident happened; Terence McCarthy, |
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He put his boot through Miss Finnerty's hoops. |
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She fell down in a faint and cried, 'Holy murder!' |
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Called her brothers and gathered them all. |
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Carmody swore he'd go no further till he got revenge at Lanigan's ball. |
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CHORUS |
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Boys oh boys 'tis then there was ructions. I got a belt from Phelim Mc Hugh. |
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I replied to his introduction, kicked up a terrible hullabaloo. |
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Moloney the piper was near gettin' smothered. |
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They leapt on his pipes, bellows, chanter and all. |
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Boys and girls all got entangled and that put an end to Lanigan's ball. |
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CHORUS |
