Now Packy Kildare was a kid without a care

His pal was Bucky McGrath

At the age of ten they talked like men

feared by the rest of their class



Sister Josephine ran a clean machine

She was nobody's fool

She'd send down below to shovel in the coal

That heated all St. Brendan's School

But they'd spilled off the spool

They were too cool for school

They called it a waste of time

So everyother day was wasted away

At the river in their life of crime



Packy I confess you have beaten the best

with a story to tell of your own

Packy go home they're looking for your bones

And your Ma's waitin'up all alone



Now the clever young men had a plan

To escape the fate that was comin'

Loadin'every grain of coal that furnace could hold

To keep that boiler hummin'

When the temperature soared to a thousand or more

The pressure continued to rise

Our boys were miles away burnin'up another day

When the blast split the mid-day sky



Now Packy's old man was first in command

The captain of the fire brigade

But the good Father Keane was first on the scene

With the good sisters he prayed

When the flames were finally out, they all looked about

Still looking for Packy and Buck

When they neither could be found

They were mourned through the town

As the heroes who ran out of luck