Now Don'T You Fault The Toughie Boys Poem by Francis Duggan

Now don't you fault the Toughie Boys if they've no sense of shame
If they live tough and they live rough society is to blame
If you were raised in city slum and from birth had bad name
You too would be a toughie boy and like them act the same.

Now don't you fault the Toughie Boys if they do brawl and fight
If blood is spilt on ghetto street most every weekend night
Frustration gets to them when drunk and fists begin to fly
And by the heck you too would fight if you were toughie boy.

No don't you fault the Toughie Boys if they've no sense of pride
You too would lose your self respect if always unemployed
They've nothing to look forward to but a life on the dole
And idleness corrupt the mind and rot away the soul.

Now don't you fault the Toughie Boys if they lead lives of crime
If most of the boys of the slum in jailhouse have spent time
On ghetto street there's little law and scant respect for life
And the toughie boys only respect the bullet or the knife.

Now don't you fault the Toughie Boys if they accept State crumbs
If most of them don't know their dads and barely know their mums
And you don't know what it's like to live in the slum side of town
In draughty hovel in damp room with plaster falling down