I wish I was in Carrick Fergus (a -d)                           

              Only for nights in Ballygran (G7-C-FC)          

            I would swim over the deepest ocean  (d- G7-C)

                      Only for nights in Ballygran.   ( a- d -G7- C - FC)  

              But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over (C -a-G7)

                 And neither have I the wings to fly  (C-a-F-G7) 

      I wish I have a handsome boatman  (d-G7-C) 

                      To ferry me over to my love and die.   (a-d-G7-C-F)

My childhood days bring back sad reflections

Of happy times I spent so long ago.

My boyhood friends and my own relations

Have all passed on now like the melting snow

But I´ll spent my days in endless roaming

Soft is the grass my bed is free

Ah, to be back now in Carrick Fergus

on that long road down to the sea.

And in Killkenny it is reported

Are marble stones there as black as ink.

With gold and silver I would support her

But I´ll sing no more now till I got a drink

I´m drunk today and I´m seldom sober

A handsome rover from town to town,

Ah, but I´m sick now me days are numbered

So come all ye young men and lay me down.

The lyrics to Carrickfergus as we now know them were first recorded by Dominic Behan in the mid 1960s.

He said he had learnt the song from fellow Irishman and actor Peter O’Toole.

The words tell the story of a wandering rover who is separated from his lover.

He cannot get to her because the sea lies between them.  There are similar versions of the lyrics in most English speaking countries across the world, but Carrickfergus is probably the most widely known and recorded.