As I was going to the fair at Dingle
One fine morning last July
When going down the road before me,
A red haired girl I chanced to spy.
I went up to her, said I, “Young lady,
Me donkey, he will carry two.”
She looked at me, her eyes did twinkle,
And cheeks they were a rosey hue.
“Well I thank you kindly, sir,” she answered,
And then she tossed her bright hair,
“Seein’ that you’ve got your donkey,
I ride with you to the Dingle fair.”
But when we reached the fair at Dingle,
I took her hand to say good-bye,
A tinker man stepped up beside me,
And belted me in my left eye!
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
Now I was feeling kind of peevish,
My poor eye was kind of sore,
I tapped him lightly with me hobnails,
He flew back through Murphy’s door!
He went off to find his brother;
The biggest man you e’er did meet.
He ‘gently’ tapped me with his knuckles,
And I was minus two front teeth.
And red haired Mary, kept on smiling.
“I’ll go with you young man”, she said
forget the priest this very morning,
tonight we’ll lie in Murphy’s shed!
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
A policeman came around the corner,
He told me I had broke the law,
The donkey kicked him in the knee,
And he fell down and broke his jaw!
Now through the Fair we rode together,
My black eye and her red hair.
Smilin’ gaily at the tinkers,
Weren’t we a happy pair
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
“Keep your hands off red-haired Mary,
She and I are to be wed.
We were with the priest this very morning,
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed.”
