The Swamp Rats Of Louisiana

My name it is Sheehan many miles I have strayed

To this cruel heat of New Orleans,

For I was told by the broker I would get to New York

And bid farewell to the Liverpool streets

From the docks of the Mersey I arrived on these shores

And we built the New Basin Canal

And we fell like the rain digging towards pontchartrain

Now the fever has taken us all

The heat it is hell and the day it is long

From swinging this pick there's no thanks

And when we had finished and dug to the Lake

30 000 lay dead on it's banks

We huddled in shacks that once sheltered the blacks

In the Poor Third District it's known

And we ate clasps of straw, for our bellies were raw

And we died on the sides of the road

Down in Gallatin Street the old hookers would meet

The thieves and the coppers would fight

And the Live Oaks would battle their way through them all

And I stood with them right through the night

A Live Oak boy I am and I don't care a damn

For those bastards who near worked me dry

Now the cholera's spread and they'll all soon be dead

And we'll all meet our Lord in the sky

Farewell Mother Ireland you had given your best

For your own blight has emptied your shores

All we found was yellow fever, exploitation and death

A sunken city of death, swamps and whores

So to hell all ye landlords, sneak brokers and you

Who treated us worse than a slave

No price or no value for any Mick with a spade

When we all flooded down the gangways!

A Live Oak boy I am and I don't care a damn

For those bastards who near worked me dry

Now the cholera's spread and they'll all soon be dead

And we'll all meet our Lord in the sky

Yes we'll all meet our Lord in the sky