Donovan's Mount
By A Wandering Tip*

Air: Lanigan's ball.

I roved round the camp till I met with an Irishman
Whose houses and lands give appearance of joy,
So I up and I asked if he wanted a pedagogue
As I tipped him the wink that I was the boy.
He made me sit down put my head in my hat again
Then ordered a peon my traps to dismount
And said as he handed around a big bumper full
"You're welcome señor to Donovan's mount."

Chorus: Hip, hip, hip hurrah for Donovan
For racing and spreeing I've found out the fount,
And if it should hap that one loses himself again
Let him ask the way to Donovan's mount.

I have travelled afar but never encountered yet
Another to equal this green spot of camp;
The boys that are on it are full of all devilment
And dance till sun-rise by the light of a lamp.
And as for the girls these nymphs of the Pampa wild
Sure he never escapes them the victim they count,
They always are gay and as bright as the morning dew
These magnetic needles of Donovan's mount.

Chorus: Hip, hip, hip, & &

Tho' La Plata boasts not of the steep mountain towering high
Or the vales that abound in far Erin's green isle,
Yet sweet are the plains where the red savage wanders free
When lit by the light of a fond girl's smile.
Then here's a flowing glass to our Irish porteñas all
May they ne'er have more sorrow than mine to recount
For sorrow and I are like distant relationships
Since the first day I stepped into Donovan's mount.

Chorus: Hip, hip, hip, & &

* 'El Monitor de la Campaña' N° 35
(Capilla del Señor, 19 February 1872).

The Society for Irish Latin American Studies, 2005