Johnny Jump Up

I’ll tell you a story that happened to me
One day as I went down to Youghal by the sea
The sun it was bright and the day it was warm
Says I a quite pint wouldn’t do me no harm

I went in and I called for a bottle of stout
Says the barman I’m sorry all the beer is sold out
Try whiskey or Paddy, ten years in the wood
Says I I’ll try cider, I’ve heard that it’s good

O never, O never, O never again
If I live to a hundred or a hundred and ten
For I fell to the ground and I couldn’t get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up

After lowering the third I made straight for the yard
Where I bumped into Brophy the big civic guard
Come here to me boy, don’t you know I’m the law?
I upped with me fist and I shattered his jaw

He fell to the ground with his knees doubled up
But it wasn’t I hit him, ’twas Johnny Jump Up
The next thing that I met down by Youghal by the Sea
Was a cripple on crutches and says he to me

I’m afraid for me life I’ll be hit by a car
Won’t you help me across to the Railwayman’s Bar?
After drinkin’ a quart of that cider so sweet
He threw down his crutches and danced on his feet

I went up the Lee road a friend for to see
They call it the Madhouse in Cork by the Lee
But when I got up there the truth I do tell
They had the poor bugger locked up in a cell

Said the guard testing him, say these word if you can
Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran
Tell them I’m not crazy, tell them I’m not mad
It was only a sup of the bottle I had

A man died in the Union by the name of McNab
They washed him and laid him outside on a slab
And after O’Connor his measurements did take
His wife took him home to a bloody fine wake

About twelve o’clock and the beer it was high
When the corpse he sat up and says he with a sigh
I can’t get to heaven, they won’t let me up
Till I bring them a quart of the Johnny Jump Up

O never, O never, O never again
If I live to a hundred or a hundred and ten
For I fell to the ground and I couldn’t get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up