To my ear nobody sings “I’ll Tell Me Ma” with the same flamboyant confidence of style , as Dublin born singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor.
“I’ll Tell Me Ma”
I’ll tell me ma, when I go home,
The boys won’t leave the girls alone.
They pulled my hair, they stole my comb,
That’s alright, ’til I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?
Albert Mooney says he loves her.
All the boys are fighting for her.
They knock at the door and they ring at the bell,
Oh, my true love, are you well?
Out she comes, as white as snow,
Rings on her fingers bells on her toes.
Johnny Murphy says, “She will die,
If she doesn’t get the fella with the roving eye”.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?
Let the wind and the rain and the hail blow high,
END
And the snow come shovelling from the sky.
She’s as nice as apple pie.
She’ll get her own lad, by and by.
When she gets a lad of her own,
She won’t tell her ma, when she gets home.
Let them all come, as they will,
But it’s Albert Mooney she loves still.
She is handsome, she is pretty.
She is the belle of Belfast City.
She is courting one, two, three.
Please won’t you tell me who is she?
VERY NICE