Mrs. McGrath

"Mrs. McGrath," the sergeant said

"Would you like a soldier of your son, Ted?

With a scarlet cloak and a big cocked hat

Mrs. McGrath, would you like that?"

With your too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With your too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Now Mrs. McGrath lived on the shore

And after seven years or more

She spied a ship come into the bay

With her son from far away

"Oh, Captain dear, where have you been?

You been sailing the Mediterranean?

Have you news of my son Ted?

Is he living, or is he dead?"

With your too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With your too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Then came Ted without any legs

And in their place two wooden pegs

She kissed him a dozen times or two

And said, "My God, Ted, is it you?"

"Now were you drunk, or were you blind

When you left your two fine legs behind?

Or was it walking upon the sea

That wore your two fine legs away?"

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Wwith a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

"No, I wasn't drunk, and I wasn't blind

When I left my two fine legs behind

A cannonball on the fifth of May

Tore my two fine legs away"

"Ah, Teddy, boy," the widow cried

"Your two fine legs were your mother's pride

Them stumps of a tree won't do at all

Why didn't you run from the cannonball?"

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

[Instrumental break]

"All foreign wars, I do proclaim

Live on blood and a mother's pain

I'd rather have my son as he used to be

Than the King of America and his whole Navy"

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-di-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

With a too-ri-aa, fol-did-dle-aa, too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa