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This song was written by Dick Shannon of Dublin but is often attributed to Brendan Behan, who made it famous when he included it in his 1954 play The Quare Fellow as per this mudcat thread. Most of us know this from the Pogues version, but Luke Kelly does a haunting acapella version in Brendan Behan’s short documentary film Dublin. It’s about being locked away in the Mountjoy Jail near the Royal Canal in Dublin.
Old Triangle, The
by Dick Shannon
A [D] hungry feeling came o’er me stealing.
And the [G] mice were [Bm] squealing, in my [Em] prison [G] cell
(Chorus
And the [D] old triangle went jingle jangle.
All [G] along the [Bm] banks of the [A7] Royal Ca- [D] nal )
To begin the morning the warder’s bawling,
“Get out of bed, and clean up your cell”
Chorus
On a fine spring evening the lag lay dreaming,
the seagulls wheeling high above the wall
Chorus
The screw was peeping. The lag was sleeping
while he lay weeping for his girl Sal
Chorus
The wind was rising, and the day declining
as I lay pining in my prison cell
Chorus
In the female prison there are seventy women.
I wish it was with them that I did dwell
Chorus
The day was dying and the wind was sighing
as I lay crying in my prison cell
Chorus
And the [G] mice were [Bm] squealing, in my [Em] prison [G] cell
(Chorus
And the [D] old triangle went jingle jangle.
All [G] along the [Bm] banks of the [A7] Royal Ca- [D] nal )
To begin the morning the warder’s bawling,
“Get out of bed, and clean up your cell”
Chorus
On a fine spring evening the lag lay dreaming,
the seagulls wheeling high above the wall
Chorus
The screw was peeping. The lag was sleeping
while he lay weeping for his girl Sal
Chorus
The wind was rising, and the day declining
as I lay pining in my prison cell
Chorus
In the female prison there are seventy women.
I wish it was with them that I did dwell
Chorus
The day was dying and the wind was sighing
as I lay crying in my prison cell
Chorus