Indian Meal Songtext
von Declan O’Rourke

Well, up in the mountains and down in the glens
The boilers are splashing with Indian meal
From out of the scalps and the hovels and dens
They follow the sound of the bells as they peel

Indian meal
Indian meal
Indian meal

Fighting their way over necks of old women
And half-starving children with elbows and fists
Stuffing hodgepodge into canning
Then nogging and coughing and sluttering back over the ditch
They come with their tickets each day for the dregs
Gathering the yellow in tins and in pans
This much of the meat is in ounces and pounds

Indian meal
Indian meal
Indian meal


So what did 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

Oh, lovely, pretty, oh, where have you gone?
You left us with nothing to bite us upon
The fishermen′s nets are all locked in the pond
And all that we've caught is our death in the morn
Oh, the milk and the butter and the lablyo-lumbers
Were all that was needed to cure the pangs
Now, we′ll be flutters, a dose of the scutters
If you don't cook it right, it'll give you the

Indian meal
Indian meal
Indian meal

In Dublin, so fair, take your hungred and warts
The Quaker sells out for a penny a quart
Your penny and ha′pens will get your bread too
For to dunk in the yellow meal, Indian stew

The ship′s leaving full of pigs, heifers and lambs
Some transporting convicts to Van Diemen's land
Where hemorrhaging battles of butter and grain
And all that comes back and all that remains is


Indian meal
Indian meal
Indian meal

They′re paving the streets of America
With gold at your feet for a dollar a day
While here on the works you make Bohrian whey
For the yellow are barely a shillin' a piece