Oh, the old turf fire and the hearth swept clean,
There is no-one half so happy as myself and Paddy Keane;
With the baby in the cradle you could hear her mammy say
"Wouldn't you go to sleep, Alanna, till I wet your daddy's tay."
"Oh the man that I work for is a richer man than me,
But somehow in this world, feth, we never can agree;
He has big tow'ring mansions and castles over all
But sure I wouldn't exchange with him my little marble hall."

"I have got a house and a tidy bit of land;
You would never see a better on the side of Knocknacran;
No piano in the corner and no pictures on the wall,
But I'm somehow quite contented in my little marble hall."
O the old turf fire and the hearth swept clean,
There is no-one half so happy as myself and Paddy Keane;
With the baby in the cradle you could her her mammy say,
"Wouldn't you go to sleep, Alanna, till I wet your daddy's tay."

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Singing Together, Spring 1976, BBC Publications

Notes:
Roud 8215, one example only at present: Hughes, Irish Country Songs 4, 1936, 41-44. Probably the original source of this text, though the song was recorded by John McCormack and other lyric tenors and was no doubt published as sheet music on the strength of that.



Roud: 8215 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child: