Irish traditional song lyrics — collected by Beer Belly Band.
The canals and the bridges, the embankments and cuts
They blasted and dug with their sweat and their guts
They never drank water, but whiskey by pints
And the shanty towns ran with their songs and their fights
Chorus:
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there’s work to be done
Take your pick and your shovel and your bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
They died in their hundreds with no sign to mark where
Save the brass in the pocket for the entrepreneur
By landslide and rock-blast they go buried so deep
That in death if not life they’ll find peace while they sleep
Chorus:
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there’s work to be done
Take your pick and your shovel and your bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
Their mark on this land is still seen and still laid
The way for a commerce where vast fortunes were made
The supply of an Empire where the sun never sets
Which is now deep in darkness, but the railway’s there yet
Chorus:
Navigator, Navigator rise up and be strong
The morning is here and there’s work to be done
Take your pick and your shovel and your bold dynamite
For to shift a few tons of this earthly delight