Born in the middle of the afternoon In a horse drawn carriage on the old The big twelve wheeler shook my bed "You can't stay here" the policeman said Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" You'd better get born in some place else So move along, get along, Move along, get along Go! Move! Shift! Born in the common by a building site Where the ground was rutted by the trail of wheels The local Christian said to me "You'll lower the price of property" Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" Born at the back of a hawthorn hedge Where the black hole frost lay on the ground No eastern kings came bearing gifts Instead the order came to shift Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" The eastern sky was full of stars
And one shone brighter than the rest The wise men came so stern and strict And brought the orders to evict Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" Wagon, tent or trailer born Last month, last year or in far off days Born here or a thousand miles away There‚s always men nearby who'll say Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" Six in the morning out in Inchicore The guards came through the wagon door John Maughan was arrested in the cold A travelling boy just ten years old Born at potato picking time In a noble tent in a tatie field The farmer said, "The work's all done It's time that you was moving on" Mary Joyce was living at the side of the road No halting place and no fixed abode The vigilantes came to the Darndale site And they shot her son in the middle of the night