Matty went out on a frozen night heading for the pub shoulders hunched up tight

Head down on the railroad track his old cow Delia sad lowin him back

He met with a dark and a troubled man as he passed him by called back at him

Matty cant you see what they've done to me in your country of the blind

The house i’ve left is dead to me to my rhymin and my poetry

All I have is the beat of the stagger headin down the curra line

He passed him by quick as he could he couldn’t stand such a crooked man sober

All he wanted were the lights of the bar the nightingale and the wild rover

When he came in they were saying he's back

Did Delia drive you out with your spouting and swearin

We don't want to hear about Bunker Hayden

Sing us The Girls of Kinkane

They fear an tí eyed him steadily and they handed him a pint of porter

You must have seen the bishops ghost tonight the dry look back in your eye

But matty would not be taken in by their jibin and regalin

He found himself a fresh blown crew fell in with their sportin and their balin

When he was goin home in the very same spot he met with his dark familiar

He seen him coming back down the line bright and strange and fine

He passed him by and threw out his arms to grab hold of his likeness

In the morning they found his frozen corpse at the butt of the curra line

At the wake they were lashin out the drops of brandy,the auld fashioned habit

In the church they were lashin out pounds and fivers for matty in the old bye and bye