Botany Bay Lyrics

Wolfe Tones Botany Bay

Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your
dirty lies
Farewell to your gangers and gang planks
And to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin, she's lying at the quay
For to take oul Pat with a shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay

I'm on my way down to the quay, where the ship at
anchor lays
To command a gang of navvys, that they told me to
engage
I thought I'd drop in for a drink before I went away
For to take a trip on an emigrant ship to the shores of
Botany Bay,
To the shores of botany bay

Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your
dirty lies
Farewell to your gangers and gang planks
And to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin, she's lying at the quay
For to take oul Pat with a shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay

The boss came up this morning, he says "Well, Pat you
know
If you don't get your navvys out, I'm afraid you'll
have to go"
So I asked him for my wages and demanded all my pay
For I told him straight, I'm going to emigrate to the
shores of Botany Bay


Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your
dirty lies
Farewell to your gangers and gang planks
And to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin, she's lying at the quay
For to take oul Pat with a shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay

And when I reach Australia I'll go and look for gold
There's plenty there for the digging of, or so I have
been told
Or else I'll go back to my trade and a hundred bricks
I'll lay
Because I live for an eight hour shift on the shores of
Botany Bay,

Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your
dirty lies
Farewell to your gangers and gang planks
And to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin, she's lying at the quay
For to take oul Pat with a shovel on his back
To the shores of Botany Bay