Danny

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One night a score of Erris men,
  A score I'm told and nine,
  Said, "We'll get shut of Danny's noise
  Of girls and widows dyin'.

  "There's not his like from Binghamstown
  To Boyle and Ballycroy,
  At playing hell on decent girls,
  At beating man and boy.

  "He's left two pairs of female twins
  Beyond in Killacreest,
  And twice in Crossmolina fair
  He's struck the parish priest.

  "But we'll come round him in the night
  A mile beyond the Mullet;
  Ten will quench his bloody eyes,
  And ten will choke his gullet."

  It wasn't long till Danny came,
  From Bangor making way,
  And he was damning moon and stars
  And whistling grand and gay.

  Till in a gap of hazel glen -
  And not a hare in sight -
  Out lepped the nine-and-twenty lads
  Along his left and right.

  Then Danny smashed the nose of Byrne,
  He split the lips on three,
  And bit across the right hand thumb
  Of one Red Shawn Magee.

  But seven tripped him up behind,
  And seven kicked before,
  And seven squeezed around his throat
  Till Danny kicked no more.

  Then some destroyed him with their heels,
  Some tramped him in the mud,
  Some stole his purse and timber pipe,
  And some washed off his blood.

. . . .

  And when you're walking out the way
  From Bangor to Belmullet,
  You'll see a flat cross on a stone
  Where men choked Danny's gullet.

© John Millington Synge