1
On the eighteenth of May for my recreation,
By the banks of the Liffey I chanced for to stray,
The green fields and meadows with flowers were spangled,
The birds sweetly sang and the lambs they did play
2
I spied a young woman all dressed in deep mourning,
A babe by her bosom she tenderly bore,
She cried with emotion alas your dear father,
“My husband Dan Curley I’ll see him no more”
3
I stepped right up to her, says I: “My dear woman,
You seem overburdened with sorrow and woe,
Has some nasty landlord to you been cruel,
The cause of your sorrow I’d like for to know”
4
“Kind sir,” she replied, “The truth I will tell you,
My bosom is wrecked and my head almost bored,
For the Phoenix Park murders my husband has suffered,
And now in this wide world I’ll see him no more”
5
“James Carey that false hearted traitor of Ireland,
To gain a reward informer he turned,
By informing on others he escaped from the gallows,
My husband Dan Curley I’ll see him no more”
6
“On the eighteenth of May by the Phoenix Park murders,
Lord Cavendish and Bourke lay all in their gore,
’Twas by Carey’s advice these crimes were committed,
My husband Dan Curley I’ll see him no more”
7
“May he be evicted may his wife be a widow,
May his children turn wanderers from Erin’s green shore,
May the curse of the widow and orphan stay on him,
My husband Dan Curley I’ll see him no more”
8
“He’s gone from this world just a short while before me,
I hope we’ll rejoin on the next happy shore,
Where the angels of glory they sing God’s praises,
And I’ll meet my Dan Curley and we’ll part no more”