On the fourth of July eighteen hundred and six <br />We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork <br />We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks <br />For the grand city hall in New York <br />'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft <br />And oh, how the wild winds drove her. <br />She'd got several blasts, she'd twenty-seven masts <br />And we called her the Irish Rover. <br /><br />We had one million bales of the best Sligo rags <br />We had two million barrels of stones <br />We had three million sides of old blind horses hides, <br />We had four million barrels of bones. <br />We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs, <br />Seven million barrels of porter. <br />We had eight million bails of old nanny goats' tails, <br />In the hold of the Irish Rover. <br /><br />There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute <br />When the ladies lined up for his set <br />He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille <br />Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet <br />With his sparse witty talk he was cock of the walk <br />As he rolled the dames under and over <br />They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance <br />And he sailed in the Irish Rover <br /><br />There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee, <br />There was Hogan from County Tyrone <br />There was Jimmy McGurk who was scarred stiff of work <br />And a man from Westmeath called Malone <br />There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule <br />And fighting Bill Tracey from Dover <br />And your man Mick McCann from the banks of the Bann <br />Was the skipper of the Irish Rover <br /><br />We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out <br />And the ship lost it's way in a fog. <br />And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two, <br />Just meself and the captain's old dog. <br />Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock <br />The bulkhead was turned right over <br />Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned <br />I'm the last of the Irish Rover
