Table of Contents Previous Chapter Next Chapter
1815-?
FROM THE IRISH OF THOMAS LAVELLE
ON the deck of Patrick Lynch’s boat I sat in woful plight,
Through my sighing all the weary day and weeping
all the night;
Were it not that full of sorrow from my people forth I go,
By the blessàd sun! ’tis royally I’d sing thy praise, Mayo!
When I dwelt at home in plenty, and my gold did much
abound,
In the company of fair young maids the Spanish ale went
round—
’Tis a bitter change from those gay days that now I’m forced
to go
And must leave my bones in Santa Cruz, far from my own
Mayo.
They are alter’d girls in Irrul now; ’tis proud they’re grown
and high,
With their hair-bags and their top-knots, for I pass their
buckles by—
But it’s little now I heed their airs, for God will have it so,
That I must depart for foreign lands and leave my sweet Mayo.
’Tis my grief that Patrick Loughlin is not Earl of Irrul still,
And that Brian Duff no longer rules as Lord upon the hill:
And that Colonel Hugh McGrady should be lying dead and
low,
And I sailing, sailing swiftly from the county of Mayo.
Table of Contents Previous Chapter Next Chapter