I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygrand.
I would swim over the deepest ocean, the deepest ocean for my love to find,
But the sea is wide and I can't swim over, neither have I wings to fly.
If I could find me a handsome boatman to ferry me over to my love and die.
My childhood days bring back sad reflections of happy times spent so long ago.
My boyhood friends and my own relations have all passed on now like the melting snow,
But I'll spend my days in endless roaming; soft is the grass, my bed is free.
Ah, to be back now in Carrickfergus on that long road down to the salty sea.
And in Kilkenny it is reported there are marble stones as black as any ink.
With gold and silver I would support her, but I'll sing no more now till I get a drink.
I'm [bad word] today and I'm seldom sober, a handsome rover from town to town.
Oh, but I'm sick now. And, my days are numbered, [bad word] ye young men and lay me down.