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 　
