Lyrics:

In the days I went a courtin',
Was never tired resortin'
To an ale house or a playhouse
And many's a house besides
But I told me brother Seamus,
I'd go off and be right famous,
And I never would return again,
Until I roamed the worldwide.

Goodbye, Muirsheen Durkin,
I'm sick and tired of workin'
No more I'll dig for praties,
And no longer I'll be fooled
As sure as me name is Carney,
I'll be off to California
Where instead of digging praties,
I'll be digging lumps of gold

I've courted girls in Blarney,
In Kanturk and in Killarney
In passage and in Queenstown,
That is the Cobh of Cork
Goodbye to all this pleasure
I'll be off to take me leisure
And the next time that you'll hear from me, will be a letter from New York.

Goodbye to all the girls at home,
I'm going far across the foam
To try and make me fortune in far Amerikay
There's gold and jewels a-plenty,
For the poor and for the gentry
And when I return again,
I never more will say.