Lyrics

In the town of Ballybay there was a lassie dwellin
I knew her very well and the story is worth tellin
Her father kept a still and he was a good distiller
When she took to drink well the devil couldn't fill her

chorus
With my ring a ding a dum a ring a ding a daddios,
Me ring a ding a dum with a whack fol a daddio

And she had a wooden leg that was hollow down the middle
She used to tie a string on it and play it like a fiddle
She'd fiddle in the hall she'd fiddle in the alleyway
She didn't give a damn she had to fiddle anyway

And she said she couldn't dance unless she had her wellie on
But when she had it on she could dance as well as anyone
She wouldn't go to bed unless she had her shimmy on
But when she had it on she would go as quick as anyone

She had lovers by the score every Tom Dick and Harry
She was courting night and day but still she wouldn't marry
And then she fell in love with a fella with a stammer
When he tried to run she hit him with a hammer

She had children up the stairs she had childer in the brier
And another ten or twelve sitting roaring by the fire
She fed them on potatoes and on soup she made with nettles
And on lumps of hairy bacon that she boiled up in the kettle

So she led a sheltered life eating porridge and black pudding
And she terrorized her man until he died right sudden
And when the husband died she was feeling very sorry
She rolled him in a bag and threw him in the quarry