Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
There Was an Old Piper

There Was an Old Piper

There Was an Old Piper

 There was an old piper, old and hoary,
 Who lived in the town of (?) Ballaboreen.
 This old piper, he played before Moses,
 And this the only tune that he could play:

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,

nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,
           nyah, nyah, nyah!

 Now, this old piper, old and hoary,
 Who lived in the town of Ballaboreen,
 He died one day and he went down below,
 And this the only tune that he could play:

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,
           nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,

nyah, nyah, nyah!

 When the devil saw this old man,
 He said, "Put him down in the frying pan!
 For this is another old piper, I vow,
 Put him down with the others for to play!

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,
           nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah,

nyah, nyah, nyah!

 (The final note sung in a descending groan, like the old pipe running out of ai
r.)

 Learned from Seamus Ennis
 London, 1958
SP
oct99