Paddy on the Road

I've won a heroes name with McAlpine and Costain

With Fitzpatrick, Murphy, Ashe and Wimpey's gang

I've been often on the road on my way to draw the dole

When there's nothing left to do for Sir John Laing

I used to think that God made the mixer pick and hod

So that Paddy might know hell above the ground

I've had gangers big and tough tell me tear it all out

rough

When you're building up and tearing England down

In a tunnel underground a young Limerick man was found

He was built into the new Victoria Line

When the pouring gang had past sticking through the

concrete cast

Was the face of little Charlie Joe Devine

And the ganger man McGurk big Paddy ate the work

When the gas main burst and he flew off the ground

Oh they swear he said "Don't slack, I'll not be here

until I'm back"

Keep on building up and tearing England down

I remember Carrier Jack with his hod upon his back

How he swore he'd one day set the world on fire

But his face they've never seen since his shovel it cut

clean

Through the middle of a big high tension wire

I saw auld Bald McGann from the big flyover fall

Into a concrete mixer spinning round

Although his life was spent he got a fine head of

cement

As he was building up and tearing England down

I was on the hydro dam the day that Pat McCann

Got the better of his stammer in a week

He fell from the shuttering jam and that poor auld

stuttering man

He was never ever more inclined to speak

No more like Robin Hood will he roam through

Cricklewood

Or dance around the pubs of Camden Town

But let no man complain Paddy does not die in vain

When he's building up and tearing England down

So come all you navvies bold who think that English

gold

Is just waiting to be taken from each sod

Or that the likes of you and me could ever get an OBE

Or an knighthood for good service to the hod

They've the concrete master race to keep you in your

place

The ganger man to kick you to the ground

If you ever try to take part of what the bosses make

When they're building up and tearing England down