I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygran
    I would swim over the deepest ocean, the deepest ocean for my love to find
    But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over and 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 I spent so long ago
    My boyhood friends and my own relations have all passed on now like melting snow
    But I'll spend my days in endless roaming soft is the grass my bed is free
    Ah to be back in Carrickfergus on that long road down to the sea

    And in Kilkenny it is reported there are marble stones as black as 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
    Ah, but I'm sick now, my days are numbered [bad word] all ye young men and lay me down