Lament for the Molly Maguires

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay

We left old Ireland, we left our homes
Across the ocean, we had to roam
With five sons and a scrawny wife
Trying to make some kind of a life

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay

But the Welsh and the English, the Germans, the Dutch
Control the mines, they didn't leave much
A tar-paper shanty, no Irish apply
The Mollies started blowing all the mines sky-high

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay

A straw boss shot, and owner disappears
Many's a Welshman lost his ears
Company store burned to the ground
The Molly Maguires are spreading all around

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay

Black Jack Kehoe looked after his pack
Even honest Irish that wouldn't fight back
Checking his boys, put beer in their souls
The Molly Maguires are controlling the coal

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay

But terror ends as it had begun
James McParland, he ended their run
He left as a Molly, and he brought their fate
After many years he ended the hate

Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvaniay