"Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" is an American folk song first published in 1888 and attributed to Thomas Casey (words) and later Charles Connolly (music). It is listed as number 4401 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song is a work song, and makes references to the construction of the American railroads in the mid-19th century. The title refers to Irish workers, drilling holes in rock to blast out railroad tunnels. It may mean either to tarry as in delay, or to terrier dogs which dig their quarry out of the ground,Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (1980, 2000) by Norm Cohen, University of Illinois Press, p. 555, or from the French word for an auger, tarière. The song has been recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio, George J. Gaskin, The Weavers and Makem and Clancy, among many others.
Lyrics One version runs:
A verse sung by The Easy Riders circa 1956 runs:
However, a variant of this verse commonly sung in the late 1890s runs:
See also The Tarriers List of train songs
References
External links Drill Ye Tarriers Drill (lyrics and embedded MIDI tune) Traditional Ballad Index, California State University at Fresno