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