The Girls In Old Ireland chords by The Stillwater Hobos

D
Well the Girls in Old Ireland they come to me
                               A
Bloody shillelagh clubs for to set me free
Bm
I said my lady?s fair won?t you listen to me
          G                D
And I?ll bring you to your bonnie lass.
   D
In fifty-two the hunger took us by surprise
                            A
Water fell into my mother?s crying eyes
   Bm
We wailed just like the doves in the morning cries
        G                  D
And the crops were sick in harvest time.

       D
But my mother she was wise and she raised me well
                                      A
She told me all the things that there was to tell
Bm
Precious you sure listen cause you need me now
       G               D
In the years to come I won?t be there.
     D
Just take a hard shillelagh in your hands so strong
                                A
Always hold it gently when they do you wrong
    Bm
But when you hear John Henry?s solemn hammer song
    G                      D
God give you strength like turpentine.

    D
And darling you?re a peach tree in the summer sun
                                   A
With bonnie little branches always on the run
         Bm
And when cold winds shake your branches like a crooked gun
G                D
I?ll be there my cherub son.
       D
Like a mockingbird who laughs because there?s someone there
                                A
To wonder if they ever would discover where
     Bm
He's hiding in the trees without a worried care
G                 D
Streetcars in the alleyway.

         D
Well the Girls in Old Ireland they come to me
                                          A
Let their bloody kings and clubs be their melodies
  Bm
A whiskey-fog still burning in my memory
G              D
Scattered all along the grass.