Pat Reilly

It bein' on a monday morning, it bein' our pay day We met Sergeant Jenkins at our goin' away He says to Pat Reilly "You are a handsome young man Will you come to John Kelly's where we will set a dram" And while we sat there boozin' and drinkin' our dram He says to Pat Reilly "You are a handsome young man I'd have you take the bounty and come along with me To the sweet County Longford, strange faces there you'll see" "Oh no kind sir, a soldier's life with me would not agree Nor neither would I bind myself down from my liberty For I lived as happy as a prince, my mind does tell me so So fare thee well, I'm just goin' down, my ?shatter for to thow? "Oh are you in a hurry, are you goin' away? Or won't you stop and listen to these words I'm goin' to say Perhaps now Pat Reilly, you might do something worse Than to leave your native country and enlist in the Black Horse" Oh it's I took the bounty, the reckoning was paid The ribbons were brought out, me boys, and into my cockade It's early the next morning we all were made to stand Before our grand general with hats all in our hands He says to Pat Reilly "You are a little too low With some other regiment I fear you have to go" "I may go where I will, I have no-one to mourn For my mother is dead, me boys, and never will return" It's not in the morning that I sing this song But it's in the cold evening as I march alone With me gun o'er my shoulder I bitterly do weep When I think of my true love that now lies fast asleep My blessing on my mother that reared me neat and clean But bad luck to my father that made me serve the queen Oh had he been an honest man and learned to me my trade I would never have enlisted nor worn the cockade --- Pat Reilly - Planxty