Lanigan’s Ball

In the town of Athy one Jeremy Lanigan
Battered away till he hadn’t a pound
His father he died and made him a man again
Left him a farm and ten acres of ground
He gave a grand party to friends and relations
Who did not forget him when come to the wall
If you but listen I’ll make your eyes glisten
At the rows and ructions at Lanigan’s Ball

Six long months I spent in Dublin
Six long months doing nothing at all
Six long months I spent in Dublin
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s ball
I stepped out, I stepped in again
I stepped out again, I stepped in again
I stepped out and I stepped in again
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s Ball

Myself to be sure got free invitations
For all the nice girls and boys I might ask
And just in a minute both friends and relations
Were dancing as merry as bees ’round a cask
There was lashings of punch and wine for the ladies
Potatoes and cakes; there was bacon and tea
There were the Nolans, the Dolans, O’Gradys
Courting the girls and dancing away

They were doing all kinds of nonsensical polkas
All round the room in a whirligig
But Julia and I soon banished their nonsense
And tipped them a twist of a real Irish jig
Oh, how that girl got mad on me
And danced till you’d think the ceilings would fall
For I spent three weeks at Brooks Academy
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s Ball

Six long months I spent in Dublin
Six long months doing nothing at all
Six long months I spent in Dublin
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s ball
She stepped out, I stepped in again
I stepped out and she stepped in again
She stepped out, I stepped in again
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s Ball

The boys were as merry, the girls all hearty
Dancing away in couples and groups
Till an accident happened; young Terence McCarthy
He put his right leg through Miss Finnerty’s hoops
The creature she fainted and cried ‘Meelia, murther’
Called for her brothers and gathered them all
Carmody swore that he’d go no further
Till he’d have satisfaction at Lanigan’s Ball

In the midst of the row, Miss Kenigan fainted
Her cheeks at the same time as red as a rose
Some of the boys decried she was painted
She took a small drop too much, I suppose
Her sweetheart Ned Morgan, so powerful and able
When he saw his fair colleen stretched by the wall
He tore the left leg from under the table
And smashed all the dishes at Lanigan’s Ball

Six long months I spent in Dublin
Six long months doing nothing at all
Six long months I spent in Dublin
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s ball
She stepped out, I stepped in again
I stepped out and she stepped in again
She stepped out, I stepped in again
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s Ball

Boys, oh boys ’tis then there was ructions
Myself got a kick from big Phelim McHugh
But soon I replied to his kind introduction
And kicked up a terrible hullabaloo
Ould Casey, the piper, was near being strangled
They squeezed up his pipes, bellows, chanters and all
The girls in their ribbons they all got entangled
And that put an end to Lanigan’s Ball

Six long months I spent in Dublin
Six long months doing nothing at all
Six long months I spent in Dublin
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s ball
She stepped out, I stepped in again
I stepped out and she stepped in again
She stepped out, I stepped in again
Learning to dance for Lanigan’s Ball