"Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" is an American folk song first published in 1888 and attributed to Thomas Casey (words) and much later Charles Connolly (music). The song is a work song

Work song

A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....

, and makes references to the construction of the American railroads in the mid-19th century. The tarriers of 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

Lyrics

Every morning about seven o'clock

There's a hundred tarriers a workin at the rock

The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still

And come down heavy on the cast iron drill."

Chorus

And drill, ye tarriers, drill

Drill, ye tarriers, drill

For it's work all day for the sugar in you tay

Down beside the railway

And drill, ye tarriers, drill

And blast, and fire.

The boss was a fine man down to the ground

And he married a lady six feet 'round

She baked good bread and she baked it well

But she baked it harder than the hobs of Hell.


The foreman's name was John McCann

By God, he was a blamed mean man

Last week a premature blast went off

And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff.

And when next payday came around

Jim Goff a dollar short was found

When he asked, "What for?" came this reply

"You were docked for the time you were up in the sky."

Tarriers live on work and sweat

There ain't no tarrier got rich yet

Sleep and work, then work some more

And we'll drill right through to the devil's door."