Irish traditional song lyrics — collected by Beer Belly Band.
I’m a poor man as honest as they come I never was a thief until they caught me,
The judge said he swore me hands were red, no matter how I pled they found me guilty,
There was no bail, I’m off to Durham Gaol, I’m going and nothing now can save me,
Calamities they always come in threes, and that’s how many months it was they gave me.
Chorus:
And it’s no never in the livelong day,
Will you find me back in Durham Gaol.
And it’s no never in the livelong day,
Will you find me back in Durham Gaol.
‘Twas a gray day when first I went astray, the divil take the man who came to tempt me,
For in no time me life was one of crime, and now you see the trouble that its got me.
There are four bare walls at which stare, me food and me lodgings they are paid for,
You can’t see the turning of the key, to hear the turning that is all you wait for.
Chorus
Oh it’s sad to say that here I to stay, with only iron bars around to lean on,
I get a bath to dampen down me wrath, though it’s barely just a month ago I got one,
God knows I need a suit of clothes, you’d think they could have found a one to fit me
Me boots would be fine if they were both a nine, I’m walking like a fall of stones had hit me
Chorus
And I’m sure that me mother’s heart would break, to see me in a state of such repentance,
I’m glad she’s not around to see, and I’ll be out before she finished her sentence,
The sun will shine, I’ll leave it all behind, knowing I’ve done me time and done me duty,
Then out of the gate on the narrow and the straight, to the place where I’ve buried all the booty.