Mcalpines Fusiliers tab by The Dubliners

McAlpines Fusiliers - the Dubliners
Lyrics: Dominic Behan


Taken from the version on the album Finnegans Wake and videos of Dubliners
performances

Original Key: A


#1:
   A          D           A    E    A
All down the glen came McAlpines men with their shovels slung behind them
A             D
'Twas in the pub that they drank their sup and up in the spike you'll find them
   A           D
They sweated blood and they washed down mud with pints and quarts of beer
  A        D         A    E   A
And now we're on the road again with McAlpine's Fusiliers

#2:
 A             D        A       E    A
I stripped to the skin with Darkie Flynn way down upon the Isle of Grain
                 D
With the horsefaced Toole, 'cos I knew the rule, no money if you stopped for rain.
 A         D
McAlpine's God was a well filled hod, your shoulders cut to bits and seared,
  A       D              A    E   A
And woe to he who went to look for tea with McAlpine's Fusiliers

#3:
  A          D         A   E    A
I remember the day that Bear O'Shea fell into a concrete stairs.
A              D
What Horseface said when he saw him dead well it wasn't what the rich called prayers.
   A          D
I'm a navvy short was the one retort that reached unto my ears
     A            D          A    E   A
When the going is rough well you must be tough with McAlpine's Fusiliers

Instrumental Break:

A  D  A E A
A    D
A    D
A  D  A E A

#4:
   A             D         A    E     A
I've worked 'til the sweat has had'n me bet, with Russian, Czech and Pole.
A              D
On shuddering jams up at the hydro dams or underneath the Thames in a hole.
   A            D
I've grabbed it hard and I've got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears.
    A           D           A    E   A