The Juice Of The Barley

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


[Refrain]

  D7     G                   C    G           G            D7        G
Singin' bainne na mbo is an gamh-na, and the Juice of the Barley for me


[Verse 2]

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Well when I was a gossoon of eight years old or so
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With me turf and me primer to school I did go
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To a dusty old school house without any door
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Where lay the school master blind drunk on the floor


[Verse 3]

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At the learning I wasn't such a genius I'm thinking (I wasn't much for poetry, either)
      G                      C          D7
But I soon beat the master entirely at drinking
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Not a wake or a wedding for ten miles around
      G                       C          D7
But meself in the corner was sure to be found


[Refrain]

         G                   C   G            G           D7         G
Singin' bainne na mbo is an gamh-na, and the Juice of the Barley for me


[Verse 4]

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One Sunday the priest thread me out from the altar
              G                       C         D7
Saying you'll end your days with your neck in a halter;
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And you'll dance a fine jig between heaven and hell
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And his words they did frighten me the truth for to tell


[Verse 5]

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So the very next morning as the dawn it did break
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I went down to the vestry the pledge for to take
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And there in that room sat them priests in a bunch
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Round a big roaring fire drinkin' tumblers of punch


[Refrain]

        G                   C    G            G           D7         G
Singin' bainne na mbo is an gamh-na, and the Juice of the Barley for me


[Verse 6]

          G                       C        G
Well from that day to this I have wandered alone
       G                       C         D7
I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none
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With the sky for me roof and the earth for me floor
         G                          C       D7
And I'll dance out me days drinking whiskey galore


[Refrain]

        G                    C   G            G           D7         G
Singin' bainne na mbo is an gamh-na, and the Juice of the Barley for me
        G                    C   G            G           D7         G
Singin' bainne na mbo is an gamh-na, and the Juice of the Barley for me