The Boiling Of The Beef by Kara


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St. Patrick's Day 2000 Special Song Challenge: Bob, Corned Beef and The Devil -- Dateline Boston, USA. Some Irish Catholics may have a beef with the church on St. Patrick's Day. This year, the holiday falls on a Friday in Lent, the period when Roman Catholics are encouraged to abstain from eating meat as an act of penance and a reminder of the sacrifices of Jesus. Many Catholic bishops, including Boston's and New York's, are giving dispensation to parishioners who want to partake of the traditional Irish-American meal of corned beef and cabbage. But some bishops are refusing to let their congregations off the hook, like Bishop Sean O'Malley of Fall River, Massachusetts, has not issued a dispensation. As a result, Catholics with a hankering for corned beef on March 17th may be heading to nearby Boston. But even without a dispensation, there is a possible out for those who don't want to ignore the rules but feel a craving for corned beef: They can travel to another diocese where the meal is deemed OK. "Corned beef and cabbage is a mainstay of our menu," says Jerry Burke, owner of Doyle's Cafe, an Irish pub in Boston's Jamaica Plains neighborhood, "And people are going to do it anyway." Mr. Burke expects to sell thousands of pounds of corned beef and cabbage this Friday. Also included in the no-no parishes are those in Rockville Centre, New York and Brooklyn, New York."

The Boiling Of The Beef by Kara
(Tune: The Wearing Of The Green)

Oh Paddy dear did you hear
The news that's going round
The bishop has band corned beef
From Brooklyn and New York town
No more the cabbage can we boil
Until it is a goo
For the bishop says we will be dammed
To hell if ere we do

Chorus:
Oh the boiling of the beef
Oh the boiling of the beef
They 're excommunicating paddy's
For the boiling of the beef

When Jesus in the wideness
Alone faced his trials
The aroma of that corned beef
He could smelt for miles and miles
The devil all in waitress dress
Did temp him with a dish
But strong and true unto the lord
He ate nothing but fish

Chorus:
Oh the boiling of the beef
Oh the boiling of the beef
They 're excommunicating paddy's
Oh the boiling of the beef

So those who have set by the booze
For the holy month of lent
Have given up all excess
And on heavens path are bent
Next year you could reschedule it
As to avoid the quarrels
Or from the day of Mardi Gras
Just give up your morals;

Chorus:
Oh the boiling of the beef
Oh the boiling of the beef
They 're excommunicating paddy's
Oh the boiling of the beef