Henry's Songbook

When first I came to London in the year of 'thirty-nine
The city looked so wonderful and the girls were so divine
But the coppers got suspicious and they soon gave me the knock
I was charged with being the owner of an old alarm clock

Oh next morning down by Marlborough Street I caused no little stir
The IRA were busy and the telephones did bar
Said the judge, I'm going to charge you with the possession of this machine
And I'm also going to charge you with the wearing of the green

Now says I to him , Your Honour, if you'll give me half a chance
I'll show you how my small machine can make the peelers dance
It ticks away politely till you get an awful shock
And it ticks away the gelignite in my old alarm clock

Said the judge, Now listen here, my man, and I'll tell you of our plan
For you and I are countrymen I do not give a damn
The only time you'll take is mine - ten years in Dartmoor dock
And you can count it by the ticking of your old alarm clock

Now this lonely Dartmoor city would put many in the jigs
The cell it isn't pretty and it isn't very big
Sure I'd long ago have left the place if I had only got
My couple of sticks of gelignite and my own alarm clock

(as sung by The Dubliners)

Tune: The Garden Where the Praties Grow

[1965:] A humourous song describing the I.R.A. bombing campaign in England during 1938-39. It is typical of the light-hearted approach by the I.R.A. soldiers serving 'overseas' at that time. The tune is 'The Garden Where the Praties Grow'. (Paddy Tunney, notes Dominic Behan, 'Easter Week and After')

[1998:] Dominic Behan recorded the Old Alarm Clock back in about 1957, by the way, and indeed sang Marylebone. As I recall the associated story, in 1939 the IRA were hampering the British war effort as best they could. Germany had a lot of Eire sympathisers then, on the basis that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. (Ewan McVicar, www.mudcat.org, 30 Sep)

[1999:] Webster's New World, Ma Offer's favorite dictionary, says gelignite is a sensitive blasting explosive that is a mixture of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, etc. It's also called "gelatin dynamite." (Joe Offer, www.mudcat.org, 16 Oct)