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What Mally Knows |
by Aine Máire Chadwick |
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Her Majesty lives in a castle With walls hung in scarlet and gold Through echoing chambers she passes Her servants are haughty and cold But what do I know? In Colvin Street, down by the river Two families lived in a shed Black cholera crept in among them Now all those poor creatures are dead And that’s what I know The Queen has an army of soldiers Who follow the red, white and blue They say that she owns half the world Which doesn’t seem right - if it’s true But what do I know? My Georgie came back from the Alma His mind blown away by a shell He stares at the wall by the bedside And screams at his visions of Hell And that’s what I know The Queen, so we’re told, loves her subjects On Sundays, we pray for her health Then toil all the days that’s allowed us To add to her burden of wealth But what do I know? We work gutting fish by the Quayside Or crawl through the murk in the mines Our young ones deprived of their childhood Are crippled and aged ere their time And that’s what I know The Queen has a mangy grey parrot Which eats off her plate so ’tis said It doesn’t seem right to my thinking When old folk go hungry to bed But what do I know? Last night, they took old Johnnie Soulsby And buried him down by Black Stave From the cold of the Workhouse hurried To the shame of a pauper’s grave And that’s what I know |
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