i wish i was in carrickfergus only for nights in ballygrand i would swim over the deepest ocean the deepest ocean my love to find but the sea is wide and i cannot swim over and neither have i the wings to fly if i could find me a handsome boatman to ferry me over my love and i my childhood days bring back sweet reflections the happy times i spent so long ago my boyhood friends and kind relations have all past on now like melting snow i ll spend my da ys an endless rover soft is the grass and sure my bed is free oh but to be back in carrickfergus to strike that lonely road down by the sea and in kilkenny it is reported on marble stone there as black as ink with gold and silver i would support her but i ll sing no more now til i get a drink for i m drunk today and i m seldom sober a handsome rover from town to town ah but i m sick now my days are numbered come all ye young men and lay me down