Mcalpines Fusiliers tab by The Dubliners

• Key: A

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