I tell you a story that happened to me One day as I went down to Youghal by the sea. The sun it was bright and the day it was warm. Says I, "A quiet pint wouldn't do me no harm." I went in and I called for a bottle of stout. Says the barman, "I'm sorry, the beer is sold out. Try whiskey or Paddy, ten years in the wood." Says I, "I 'll try cider, I hear that it's good."
Chorus: Oh never, oh never, oh never again, If I live to be hundred or hundred and ten For I fell to the ground and I couldn't get up After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up.
II
After leaving the third I went to the yard Where I bumped into Brophy, the big civic guard. "Come here to me boy, don't you know, I'm the law?" I upped with my fist and I shattered his jaw. He fell to the ground with his knees doubled up But it wasn't I hit him, 'twas Johhny Jump Up. The next thing I met down in Youghal by the sea Was a criplle on crutches and says he to me,
"I'm afraid of me life I'll be hit by a car. Won't you help me across to the Railways Men's bar?" After drinking a quart of that cider so sweet He throw down his crutches and danced in the street.
Chorus III
I went up the Lee Road a friend for to see, And they call it the mad house in Cork by the Lee, But when I got there, the truth I do tell, They had the poor bugger locked up in a cell. Said the guard, testing him "Say these words, if you can: Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran." "Tell them I'm not crazy, tell them I'm not mad. It was only a sup of that cider I had."
Chorus IV
A man died in the Union by the name of McNabb. They washed him and laid him outside on a slab, And after O'Connor his measurements did take, His wife took him home to a bloody fine wake. About twelve o'clock and the beer it was high When the corpse he sat up and says he with a sigh, "I can't go to heaven, they won't let me up, Till I bring them a quart of this Johnny Jump Up."