Red-Haired Mary

Formerly in the Irish Packet

While going to the fair of Dingle
One fine morning last July
When going down the road before me
A red-haired girl I chanced to spy

I went to her, said, “aye, young lady,
My donkey he will carry two
And seeing how you have no donkey
To the Dingle fair I’ll ride with you”

Now when we reached the town of Dingle
I took her hand to say goodbye
When a tinker man stepped up beside me
And he belted me in my left eye

Keep your hands off red-haired Mary
Her and I will soon be wed
We’ll see the priest this very morning
Tonight we’ll lie in a marriage bed

Now I was feeling kinda peevish
And me poor old eye was sad and sore
And I gently tapped him with my hobnails
And he flew back through Murphy’s door

A policeman came around the corner
And he told me I had broke the law
When the donkey kicked him in the kneecap
And he fell down and broke his jaw

Then he went off to find his brother
The biggest man you ever did see
He gently tapped me with his knuckles
And I was minus two front teeth

Now the red-haired girl she kept on smiling
“I’ll go with you, young man,” she said
“We’ll forget the priest this very morning
And tonight we’ll lie in Murphy’s shed”

Keep your hands off red-haired Mary
Her and I will soon be wed
We’ll forget the priest this very morning
Tonight we’ll lie in Murphy’s shed

Now through the fair we rode together
My black eye and her red hair
Smiling gaily at the tinkers
And my God we were a handsome pair!