Tipperary Recruiting Song

‘Tis now we’d want to be wary, boys
The recruiters are out in Tipperary, boys
If they offer a glass, we’ll wink as they pass
We’re old birds for chaff in Tipperary, boys

Then hurrah for the gallant Tipperary boys
Although we’re “cross and contrary” boys
There’s never a one will handle a gun
Except for the Green and Tipperary, boys

Now mind what John Bull did here, my boys
In the days of our Famine and fear, my boys
He burned and sacked, he plundered and racked
Old Ireland of Irish to clear, my boys

Now Bull wants to pillage and rob, my boys
And put the proceeds in his fob, my boys
But let each Irish blade just stick to his trade
And let Bull do his own dirty job, my boys

So never to ‘list be in haste, my boys
Or a glass of drugged whiskey to taste, my boys
If to India you go it’s to grief and to woe
And to rot and to die like a beast, my boys

But now he is beat for men, my boys
His army is getting so thin, my boys
With the fever and ague, the sword and the plague
O the devil a fear that he’ll win, my boys

Then mind not the nobblin’ old schemer, boys
Though he says that he’s richer than Damer, boys
Though he bully and roar, his power is o’er
And his black heart will shortly be tamer, boys

Now, isn’t Bull peaceful and civil, boys
In his mortal distress and his evil, boys?
But we’ll cock each caubeen when his sergeants are seen
And we’ll tell them to go to the devil, boys

Then hurrah for the gallant Tipperary boys
Although we’re “cross and contrary” boys
There’s never a one will handle a gun
Except for the Green and Tipperary, boys