Christy Moore
Lawless
He was Lawless by name, Lawless by nature
He was trouble right from the start
Hard as nails, runnin' wild through the streets
He was breakin' his poor mother's heart
Nature played a trick on Lawless
And the humour of nature is cruel
He grew up as we all had expected -
Into a dangerous fool

He was a hard man, a man for all seasons
He was always out for a fight
He couldn't hold drink but still he'd get plastered
In Clark's every Saturday night
Strip to the vest and challenge the best
Until the guards they were called to come fast
And they'd lock him away for the rest of the day
And let him out on the Sunday for mass

Oh one night he went down
To the Ring's End Regatta
Where he met up with the (bold?) Dolly (Platts?)
She wasn't exactly what you'd call beauty
But she was the belle of our flats
A whirlwind romance and Dolly took a (flier?)
With Lawless she would settle down
It was pure coincidence three months before
There was a yankee destroyer in town
And the couple were blessed with one of god's miracles
Before six months had elapsed
Dolly gave birth to a nine-pound black baby
And Lawless was fit to collapse
She swore she'd never been touched by another
And Lawless took her at her word
And the neighbours exclaimed, 'he's the spit of his father, and the cuckoo is a wonderful bird.'

Oh now Lawless stays in and looks after his baby
While Dolly goes out for the night
The old gossips all say she's free in her ways
And their evil rumours ran rife
When Lawless heard this he waited for Dolly
In the bridge where the river runs low
Noone will ever know what happened next
But Dolly drowned in the Dodder
Below

Some say he's crazy and more say he's evil
Everyone says that he's mad
Noone will defend him, he was no angel
But I'll tell you he wasn't all bad
They've locked him away for the rest of his natural
Never again will he see
Down the back of Ring's End
There's a lonely child playing
Where the Liffey flows into the sea
CHRISTY'S COMMENT

Barney Rush was home and we organised a sing-song in The Ferrryman.Barney brought Mick Curry who sang this song. He is a great song writer.We had a great night. Frank harte was there too