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,[2] or from the French word for an auger, tarière.
The song has been recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Weavers and Makem and Clancy, among many others.
One version runs: Every morning at seven o'clock There's twenty tarriers a workin at the rock The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still And come down heavy on the cast iron drill."
Our new foreman is Dan McCann I'll tell you sure, He was a blamed mean man Last week a premature blast went off And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff.