Indian Meal

[Verse 1]
Well, up in the mountains and down in the glens
The boilers are splashing with Indian meal
From outta the skelps and the hovels and dens
They follow the sound of the bells as they peel

[Refrain]
Indian meal, Indian meal
Indian meal

[Verse 2]
Fighting their way over necks of auld women
And half-starving children with elbows and fists
Stuffing hodgepodge into can, into nogging
Then coughing and spluttering back over the ditch
With bony auld fingers on bony auld pegs
They come with their tickets each day for the dregs
Gathering the yella' in tins and in pans
That’s measured and meted in ounces and pounds

[Refrain]
Indian meal, Indian meal
Indian meal

[Verse 3]
Sir Walter, they say, with some controversy
He brung the potato from over the way
Well, now very few of the Holy remain
And Indian meal is the dish of the day
Our lovely prataí, oh where have you gone?
You left us with nothing to bite or sup on
The fishermens' nets are all locked in the pawn
And all that we catch is our death in the morn
Oh, the milk and the butter and knobbly old lumpers
Were all that was needed to cure the pangs
Now every flutter's a dose of the scutters
If you don’t cook it right, it'll give you the

[Refrain]
Indian meal, Indian meal
Indian meal

[Verse 3]
In Dublin so fair, to cure hunger and warts
The Quakers sell soup for a penny a quart
Your penny and ha'pence will get you bread too
For to dunk in the yella' meal Indian stew
There's ships leaving full of pigs, heifers, and lambs
Some transporting convicts to Van Diemen's Land
We're hemorrhaging barrels of butter and grain
And all that comes back in and all that remains is

[Refrain]
Indian meal, Indian meal
Indian meal
Yow

[Verse 4]
They're paving the streets of Americay
With gold at your feet for a dollar a day
While here on the works we make bótharín buí
For the yella’ or barely a shilling apiece