Robin Williamson - Lough Foyle lyrics

Words RW, music trad Irish: Nancy's Whiskey 1978 At age 14 they gave us training To number off by threes and give salutes To clean and fire the Lee and Enfield To answer smartly sir and shine the boots Me and all the other poor ba*tards Glengarry bonnets on at bugle call I never thought I looked good in khaki It hurt the pride as well as it scratched the balls I volunteered for the signals section To work the radios was a skivers joy And on manoeuvres I'd twist the orders And put confusion on the soldier boys To Northern Ireland for summer training Near to Lough Foyle not far from Derry town To get the feel of the regular army And generally act the bloody clown To eat melodious beans and gravy To sleep on old grey blankets stiff with stains And on the carsy in the morning To squat in rows like cows with labor pains Me and some lads broke out one evening Climbed through the wire and down the lough beside We spied some fishers in their long boats Casting nets out on the silvery tide They soon pulled shoreward and we got to talking To row us over the water they'd agree They hoist us dry shod in the boat beside them And way across the watery waves went we Cross to Greencastle in Southern Ireland A street of cottages set end to end A couple of churches and several boozers Where we fell to drinking with our Irish friends The best black porter, strong beer and whiskey We had a bevy there as drunk as lords And all skylarking and cutting capers Till that old church clock it chimed for four The fishers rowed us back over the water And went to fish upon the morning rise But we were drunk and devoid of caution And we were halted climbing back through the wire And me and the lads were all defaulted And straight away upon fatigues were led To double at our every duty With our rifles held obove our heads Bur my good luck was not all departed I got infected in both the ears Some kind of hole in the two of my ear drums Till not a single order I could hear I sadly smiled and looked downhearted While they could curse and shout and rage And that's the way I would end a story When I was 14 years of age