The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - The Juice of the Barley

In the sweet county Lim'rick, one cold winter's night

All the turf fires were burning when I first saw the light;

And a drunken old midwife went tipsy with joy

As she danced round the floor with her slip of a boy

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

Then when I was a young lad of six years or so

With me book and my pencil to school I did go

To a dirty old school house without any door

Where lay the school master blind drunk on the floor

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

At the learning I wasn't such a genius I'm thinking

But I soon bet the master entirely at drinking

Not a wake or a wedding for five miles around

But meself in the corner was sure to be found

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

Then one Sunday the priest read me out from the altar

Saying, "You'll end your days with your neck in a halter;

And you'll dance a fine jig betwixt heaven and hell"

And his words they did haunt me the truth for to tell

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

So the very next morn as the dawn it did break

I went down to the priest house the pledge for to take

And in there in the room sat the priests in a bunch

Round a big roaring fire drinking tumblers of punch

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

Well, from that day to this, I have wandered alone

I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none

With the sky for me roof and the earth for me floor

And I'll dance out my days drinking whiskey galore

Singing, "Bainne na mbó is an gamhna

And the juice of the barley for me"

• Artist:The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem