Michael Conway

      G                G/B          Em             C
Oh my name is Michael Conway, in old Ireland I was born
        G               G/B         C              D
Near the lake of Cloonacolly on a bright summer's morn
     G              C           G/B                      C
But soon came cruel winter to break and scatter my poor home
   G           C    G         D            G
Soon came the harsh day that forced me to roam.

       G                  G/B            Em               C
Well I reached old Philadelphia in the brave land of the free
        G                 G/B                C               D
Where I met with my two brothers; There was Pat, James, and me
       G                 C               G/B               C
We were destined for the rich land fate owes us all from birth
         G               C    G         D              G
We were bound for Butte, Montana, the richest hill on earth

            C                   C             G               G
Where their pockets they bulge heavy, when copper's running high
          C                  C                 Em       D
Where the hill rewards her brave sons, it's fortune or die
           G                G/B             Em              C
Where they tread on silver dollars on the crowded barroom floor
            G                 C   G            D              G
While they strip the granite mountain of her precious copper ore.

         G                     G/B                   Em
Well we leaped down off that steam train, and stepped out into the yellow
  C
mist
       G                  G/B                C              D
With holes still in our hearts then, and a fight in either fist
        G         C                      G/B           C
No kind face to lead us up to where the dirty smelter spat
         G                     C G         D           G
And it's there I took to hard labor as a Butte mining rat

         C                  C                  G              G
Where we trade the hours of daylight for the smell of copper ore,
           C                C              Em           D
Where it's whiskey and the cow pats to cure our copper sores
       G                G/B               Em            C
Where half the town it labors while the other half it sleeps
      G                 C   G       D             G
Where upon the granite mountain, a mile high and deep.


[Break--same as chorus]

        G                 G/B           Em             C
Oh they know me down in Dogtown, bare knuckle I would go
     G                      G/B             C             D
For there's not a man could best me while standing toe to toe
       G                   C             G/B                      C
But I defied the crooked sheriff, for I wouldn't throw his fight away
     G                        C   G        D               G
He should have laid it on at 5 to 2, and backed the bold Conway

     G             G/B                Em                      C
I was lifted in Con Peoples, with the beer and music flowing free
        G                   G/B               C         D
Where my brothers had just left me, Oh bad fortune for me
       G                C              G/B                     C
Dragged out by crooked cowards, their batons knocked me off my feet
       G             C    G            D           G
And they left me to die there, like a dog in the street.

     C          C            G              G
Far from the Anaconda, the mine with seven stacks
     C              C           Em                   D
Far from the ashen faces of young men with crooked backs
     G            G/B                    Em                  C
Far from the granite mountain and the dusty grave in which I lie
   G               C  G              D          G
My spirit chases starlings 'round a clear Mayo sky.