Ballybay Lyrics

Ballybay lyrics

In the town of Ballybay-hay 

There was a maiden dwelling. 

I knew her very well 

And her story's worth a telling. 

And her father kept a still, 

And he was a good distiller.... 

When she took to drink as well 

Well the devil couldn't fill her 



A ring-a-dom a doo, a ring-a-dom a delly 



She had a wooden leg it was hollow down the middle 

She used to tie a sting in it and play it like a fiddle 

She fiddled in the hall, she fiddled in the alleyway 

She didn't give a damn sure she had to fiddle anyway 



A ring-a-dom a doo, a ring-a-dom a delly 



She said she wouldn't dance unless she had her welly 

But when she had it on she would dance as well as any. 

Once said she wouldn't go to bed unless she had her shimmy 

But when she had it on she would go as quick as any. 

A ring-a-dom a doo, a ring-a-dom a delly 



She had lovers by the score every Tom, Dick and Harry 

And she courted night and day but still she wouldn't marry 

Then she fell in love with a fellow with a stammer 

When he tried to get away, she hit him with a hammer 



A ring-a-dom a doo, a ring-a-dom a delly 



Greg:"Andrew Harkin on bass!" (bass solo) 



Childer on the stairs and childer in the pyre 

And another ten or twelve sitting rolling by the fire 

And she fed him on potatoes

and a soup she made with nettles 

And a lot of hairy bacon that she boiled in a kettle 



A ring-a-dom a doo, a ring-a-dom a delly 



She led a sheltered life, eating porridge and black pudding. 

And she terrorized her man until he died quite sudden. 

And when her husband died she was feeling very sorry 

She rolled him in a bag and she threw him in a quarry