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--
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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.