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My young life has passed, which makes me feel dreary
For in exile I'm cast on the wilds of the prairie.
There to watch the Red Man, hunt the panther and the beaver
But my thoughts wander back to the Bogs of Shanaheever.
Tommy, Andy and Eoin in my absence get ready
By the early morning moon have the dogs out and ready
And make no delay, but be fast and clever
And we'll have a fine days coursing o'er the Bogs of Shanaheever.
In London for years, Ryan spoke of Susannah
And young Willie Ayer, he would boast of Diana
But the truth to you I'll tell , there is none of them I'd favour
I'd give Victor the sway, o'er the Bogs of Shanaheever.
From the shores of Lough Inagh to the plains of Glenbricken
And beneath the red sun, my poor heart was ticking
Went to make for Letterdean, but the boys they did'nt favour
So we crossed by the hill to the Bogs of Shanaheever.
The course it was rough and the dogs they were strong winded
And how fierce every stride, oh the hunting it was splendid.
Those 2-year old dogs so lanky swift and clever.
But the next sight I saw, was a death in Shanaheever.
The day that Victor died, my coursing days were over.
I sat down and cried, like a heartbroken lover.
We dug Victor his grave and we left him there forever.
Paid my passage to New York, from the Bogs of Shanaheever.
Ireland, my love, I will think of you forever.
There is no place on Earth that men love with such great fervour.
And when She is free, I'll come back again to see Her
Then we'll spend our days a hunting on the Bogs of Shanaheever.
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The Green Fields of Canada
Farewell to the groves of Shillelagh and Shamrock
Farewell to the girls of old Ireland all round.
May their hearts be as merry, as ever I could wish them
when far away on the ocean I’m bound.
My Mother is old and my Father quite feeble.
To leave their own country, it grieves them full sore.
Oh the tears down their cheeks, in great drops they are rolling.
To think they must die upon a foreign shore
Chorus
So its pack up your sea store, consider no longer
Twelve dollars a week isn’t very bad pay.
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages.
When your on the Green Fields of Americay
The lint dams are dry and the looms all lie broken.
The coopers are gone and the winders of creels.
Away o’er the ocean go journeymen tailors
and fiddlers who flaked out the old mountain reels.
But I mind the time when old Ireland was flourishing
when lots of her tradesmen did work for good pay.
But since our manufacturers have crossed the Atlantic.
Sure now we must follow unto Americay.
Chorus
Farewell to the dances in homes now deserted.
When tips struck the lightening in splanks from the floor
The paving and crigging of hobnails on flagstones.
The tears of the old folks and shouts of encore.
For the landlords and bailiff’s in vile combination
have forced us from hearthstones and homestead away
My the crowbar brigade be all doomed to damnation.
When we’re on the Green Fields of Americay.
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Another Man’s
Wedding
(A Nobleman’s Wedding)
as sung by Rosie Stewart
Listen to
the 1st verse
1
I was invited to another man’s wedding
All by a fair one that proved so unkind.
And aye as she thought on her old former lover,
The thoughts of her darling still ran through her mind.
2
When dinner was over and all things were completed
It fell each young man’s lot to sing a love song.
And it happened to fall on her own former lover,
To sing these few verses, it will nae take you long.
3
It’s many’s the Lord was seven years from his
Lady.
And many’s the Lord he never came back again.
But I was but one year away from my darling
When an unconstant lover to me she became
4
How can you sit at another man’s table?
How can you drink of another man’s wine?
How can you lie in the arms of another?
You that was so long a true lover of mine
5
The bride she was seated at the head of the table
And every word she remembered it well
To bear it in mind this young maid she was not able
And down at the Groom’s feet she instantly fell
6
"There is one request and I will ask you no other
The first and the last love perhaps it may be
Only this one night to stay with my mother
The rest of my time I will share it all with you"
7
The request it was asked and just immediately answered
Sighing and sobbing she went to her bed.
And early next morning when the young Groom awoken
He went to her chamber and found that she was dead.
8
He lifted her up from her soft and downy pillow.
He carried her out into the garden so green.
With sheets and fine pillows, oh soon he did surround her.
Hoping that his young wife she might come to life again.
9
"Oh Sally, lovely Sally, when you and I were
courting.
You vowed and declared that you loved none but me.
But them that depends on a fair maiden’s folly
Their love it will decay like a bark of a tree.
10
All around my hat, I will wear the weeping willow
All around my hat until death comes over me.
And if anybody ask me why I wear the willow
It’s all for my true love that I never more shall see
end
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A Dhroimin Donn Dílis
(Mick Furey sent me the words for this
song)
A dhroimin donn dílis, the landlord has come,
Like a cold blast of death he has swept o’er our home.
He has weathered the rooftree beneath the dark sky,
And houseless and homeless this night we must lie.
My heart is as cold as the white winter snow,
My blood is on fire and my heart’s in a glow.
A dhroimin donn dílis, ‘tis hard to forgive
When a robber denies us the right we should live.
For they racked and they ground us with tax and with
rent,
Till our souls they were seared and our life’s blood
was spent;
And now they have finished and on the wide world,
To the mocking of fiends from my home I was hurled.
I knelt down three times for to utter a prayer,
But my soul it was seared and the words were not there.
Oh wild thoughts and words to my dizzy head came,
Like the rushing of winds through a forest aflame.
I bid you old comrade, a last fond farewell,
For the gaunt hand of famine has touched us too well;
It has severed the master
from you, my brown cow,
With a mark on his soul and a brand on his brow.
Páidín Ó Raifeartaigh
The 2nd Line reads: Hata buí ard
bhí ar Pháidín Ó Raifeartaigh
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English Translation of Páidín Ó Raifeartaigh
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Lady of Loughrea
(note the order of the verses in pencil)
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