School: Naomh Pádraig, Carn Domhnaigh (roll number 14359)

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1. O'Donnell's Farewell to the Rosses (continued)

   

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   (2)

   The tender is in waiting to take me to Moville
   To meet the ship Columbia my heart with grief doth fill
   Rents they are too heavy, taxes hard to sustain
   So leaving my own Donegal I'm forced to cross the main.

   
   (3)

   To seek out that labour that at home I was denied,
   To breathe the airs of Freedom, in Columbia to reside,
   Oppressed by foreign laws, I held them in disdain
   And now I leave loved Ireland and sail the lonely main.

   
   (4)

   Farewell to lovely Arranmore and Ruthland banks so green,
   Where many a pleasant summers eve my friends and I had been,
   Inniscoo and Eighter islets - with Tory far away,
   And Innisfree so clear to me and charming Maghery Bay.

   
   (5)

   Where fish do sport in plenty and anglers there have skill,
   To bait the hook with diligence, and labour with a will,
   The sun will rise and set again, the tides oft ebb and flow,
   Before I greet sweet Burtonport and the village of Dungloe.

   
   (6)

   My name is O'Donnell, a descendant of Hugh Roe,
   Fame he was in history - a terror to the foe,
   May his spirit ever animate our young men one and all,
   Who live along the Rosses' shores, and over Donegal.

   
   By Francis Toland who heard it sang often by the fireside when passing away the hours

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. genre
      1. poetry
         1. folk poetry (~9,504)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Francis Toland

   Gender

   Male