Hand me down me petticoat, hand me down me shaw,

Hand me down me button boots,I’m down to the Linenhall-

 

CHORUS

 

He was a quare one, fol the diddle out of that,

He was a quare one, I tell you.

 

Me Love has joined the Arm -i-ee, gone off to fight the Boers,

I hope he keeps his Dublin head behind, let the bogmen run before--

 

If you go down to Capetown Camp, billet No.9, oh

You’ll se 3 squaddies standing there, and the good lokin one is mine--

 

He took me out to Phoenix Park, he laid me on the grass,

he put me in the family way and left me on me arse--

 

If me Love comes back from Africa, after fightin for the Queen,

He’ll have a pair o’ twins to mind, as well as the one he’s seen--

-------------------------

 

Take Me Down, con’d

 

     I think this song has been recorded by several Irish bands, but I got this version from Jimmy Duffy of Stanthorpe, Qld, who learned it from Boer War veterans while living in Dublin prior to emigrating to Australia in the mid seventies. I was also sung in WWI, Brad Tate tells me.