"Mrs. McGrath," the sergeant said
"Would you like a soldier of your son Ted?
With a scarlet coat and a big cocked hat
Mrs. McGrath, would you like that?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With your too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Now Mrs. McGrath lived on the shore
And after seven years or more
She spied a ship come into the bay
With her son from far away

"O captain dear, where have ya been?
You been sailing the Mediterranean
Have you news of my son Ted?
Is he living or is he dead?"

With your too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

Then came Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
And said, "My God, Ted, is it you?
Were ya drunk or were ya blind
When ya left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
That wore your two fine legs away?"

With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

"Now I wasn't drunk, and I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
A cannonball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs away"

"My Teddy boy," the widow cried
"Your two fine legs were yer mother's pride
Stumps of a tree won't do at all
Why didn't ya run from the cannonball?"

With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa

"All foreign wars I do proclaim
Live on blood and a mother's pain
I'd rather have my son as he used to be
Than the King of America and his whole Navy"
With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
With a too-ri-aa fol-ded-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa
A too-ri-aa fol-did-dle-di-aa too-ri-oo-ri-oo-ri-aa