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December 2000 - McAlpine's Fusiliers MCALPINE'S FUSILIERSThe words of the poem the DUBLINERS tell as prelude before playing McAlpine's fusiliers.Oh mother dear, I'm over here, And I'm never going back. What keeps me here is the rake of beer,The women and the 'craic' The 'craic' was good in Cricklewood and they wouldn't leave the Crown, There were bottles flying and Biddies crying, sure Paddy's come to town. An Irish Folk Song MCALPINE'S FUSILIERS As down the glen came McAlpine's men with their shovels slung out behind them. It was in the pub that they drank their sub or down in the spike you'll find them. We sweated blood and we washed down mud with quarts and pints of beer. But now we're on the road again with McAlpines Fusiliers. I stripped to the skin with Darky Finn down upon the Isle of Grain, With Horseface Toole I learned the rule, no money if you stop for rain. For McAlpine's god is a well filled hod with your shoulders cut to bits and seared, And woe to he who looks for tea with McAlpine’s Fusiliers. I remember the day that the Bear O'Shea fell into a concrete stair, What Horseface said, when he saw him dead, well it wasn't what the rich call prayers. "I'm a navvy short," was his one retort that reached unto my ears, When the going is rough, well you must be tough, with McAlpine's Fusiliers. I've worked till the sweat near had me beat with Russian, Czech and Pole, At shuttering jams up in the Hydro Dams, or underneath the Thames in a hole, I grafted hard and I got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears. If you pride your life, don't join, by Christ, with McAlpine's Fusiliers. All Rights Reserved |
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