This is not really my type of song but it was a great favourite of Steffi Noack (a young German Celtophile and penny-whistle player of no mean talent) who I sometimes accompanied in thePinökel in 1993.She loved the lines "... but I'll sing no more till I get a drink, I'm drunk today and I'm seldom sober, ..."
It is interesting to note the footnotes given in the various songbooks having this song.

• Soodlums 100 Irish Ballads Volume 1 says that describes it as a very evocative tune set in Carrickfergus, County Antrim..
• In Ireland Sings by Dominic Behan, he titles the song The Kerry Boatman which he collected from Peter O'Toole and arranged with new words. He writes:
  Before my friend, Peter O'Toole, rode a camel in the desert, he sang this song for me at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford-on-Avon. It had a beginning and an end. I gave it the middle it has now, and I hope, Peter o' cara, you approve.

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When with Das Trio it would be sung by Maike Weyerts while I accompanied her on my concertina..

Lyrics