The Juice of the Barley The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem

In the sweet county Lim'rick, one cold winter's night
All the turf fires were burning when I first saw the light;
And a drunken old midwife went tipsy with joy
As she danced round the floor with her slip of a boy

Singing bainne na mbó is an gamhna
And the juice of the barley for me

Then when I was a young lad of six years or so
With me book and my pencil to school I did go
To a dirty old school house without any door
Where lay the school master blind drunk on the floor

Singing bainne na mbó is an gamhna
And the juice of the barley for me

At the learning I wasn't such a genius I'm thinking
But I soon bet the master entirely at drinking
Not a wake or a wedding for five miles around
But meself in the corner was sure to be found

Singing bainne na mbó is an gamhna
And the juice of the barley for me

Then one Sunday the priest read me out from the altar
Saying you'll end your days with your neck in a halter;
And you'll dance a fine jig betwix heaven and hell
And his words they did haunt me the truth for to tell