Lawless chords by Christy Moore

Verse 1:


G            C     G
He was Lawless by name, Lawless by nature

G       D       G   G
He was trouble right from the start

Am           D
Hard as nails, runnin' wild through the streets

G                 D
He was breakin' his poor mother's heart

Am       D
Nature played a trick on Lawless

G              D
And the humour of nature is cruel

G          C    G
And he grew up as we all had expected him

G   D     G
Into a dangerous fool

Verse 2:


G          C      G
He was a hard man, a man for all seasons

G       D     G    G
He was always out for a fight

Am             D
He couldn't hold drink but still he'd get plastered

G             D
In Clark's every Saturday night

Am          D
Strip to the vest and challenge the best

G                     D
Until the guards they were called to come fast

G                C      G
And they'd lock him away for the rest of the day

G           D     G
And let him out on the Sunday for mass

Verse 3:


G                C     G
Oh one night he went down to the Ringsend Regatta

G            D      G    G
Where he met up with the bould Dolly Platts

Am         D
She wasn't exactly what you'd call beauty

G              D
But she was the belle of her flats

Am           D
A whirlwind romance and Dolly took a flier

G        D
With Lawless she would settle down

G              C      G
And It was pure coincidence three months before

G         D      G
There was a yankee destroyer in town

Verse 4:


G                C      G
And the couple were blessed with one of god's miracles

G     D     G    G
Before six months had elapsed

Am          D
Dolly gave birth to a nine-pound black baby

G           D
And Lawless was fit to collapse

Am             D
She swore she'd never been touched by another

G             D
And Lawless took her at her word

G                   C      G
And the neighbours all say, she's the spit of her father

G          D     G
and the cuckoo is a wonderful bird.'

Verse 5:


G              C        G
Oh now Lawless stays in and looks after the family

G         D     G   G
While Dolly goes out for the night

Am               D
The old gossips all say she's free in her ways

G               D
And its there evil rumours run rife

Am             D
When Lawless heard this he waited for Dolly

G                 D
In the bridge where the river runs low

G          C       G
Noone will ever know what happened next

G            D   G
But Dolly drowned in the Dodder below

Verse 6:


G            C      G
Some say he's crazy and more say he's evil

G     D       G  G
Everyone says that he's mad

Am           D
Noone will defend him, he was no angel

G                D
But I'll tell you he wasn't all bad

Am               D
They've locked him away for the rest of his natural

G          D
Never again will he see

G
Down the back of Ring's End

     C      G
There's a lonely child playing

G           D    G
Where the Liffey flows into the sea

{Outro}


G
Down the back of Ring's End

     C      G
There's a lonely child playing

G           D    C  C C C C G
Where the Liffey flows into the sea