The Wolfe Tones — The Night Before Larry Was Stretched

The night before Larry was stretched And the boys they all paid him a visit A bit in their sacks, too, they fetched And they pawned all their duds till they ris' it For Larry was ever the lad When the boys were condemned to a squeezer To pawn all the duds that he had And to help a poor friend to a sneezer And to warm his gob before he died The boys, they came crowding in fast And they drew all their stools 'round about him Six glims round his trap-case were placed He couldn't be well-waked without them Then one of us asked, "Could he die Without having duly repented?" Says Larry, "That's all in me eye And first by the clergy invented To get a fat bit for themselves" "Then I'll be cut up like a pie And me nob from me body be parted." You're in the wrong box, then, says I For blast if they're so bad-hearted "A chalk on the back of your neck Is all that Jack Keating dare gives you I don't mind such trifle's affect For why should the likes of them grieve you? And now me boys, come tip us the deck." The clergy came in with our books And he spoke him so smooth and so civil Larry tipped him a Kilmainham look And he pitched his big wig to the devil Then sighing, he threw back his head To get his sweet drop of the bottle Oh, pitiful sighin' he said Oh, the hemp will be soon round me throttle And it'll choke me poor windpipe to death Though sure, it's the best way to die Oh, the devil, it's better than livin' For when the gallows is high Oh, your journey is shorter to heaven But what harasses Larry the most And what makes him so poor and melancholy He thinks of the time when his ghost Will come back in a sheet to sweet Molly Oh, yes, it'll kill her alive When he came to, the mumbling 'jit He was tucked up so neat and so pretty And the rumbler jugg'd off of his feet And he died with his face to the city Now he kicked too, but that was all pride For soon, you might see 'twas all over As soon as the noose was untied And at dark, now we waked him in clover And we sent him to take his ground-sweat