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Old Cross of Ardboe


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Old Cross of Ardboe

Submitted by Teena




Lyrics

Fare well my native green clad hills, farewell to my shamrock plain
Ye verdant banks of sweet Lough Neagh and silvery winding streams
Though far from my home in green Tyrone where from you first I strayed
I adore you Killcolpy, home of my boyhood days

Shall I ever see the grand old plains where in youthful days I roved
Or wander through those grand old woods with the girl I dearly loved
Or ever more by Lough Neagh's shore, shall I pass a summer's day
Or hear again the larks sweet strain or the blackbirds pysomes play

Shall I ever rove by Belmonts grove or Cranan's lofty hills
Or hear again the fairy tale of the rath behind the mill
Will the nightingale that charms the vale, by me be heard no more
As I watched at eve, the wild drake leave for the bogs of sweet Dromore.

Shall my oars e're rest on your wild wave crest or again see the salmon play
While sailing o'er from Tyrone's green shore bound for Antrim Bay
Or an autumn gale e're fill my sail with a dim declining moon
See me tempest toss on the shores of Doss or the raging Bay of Toome.

Shall I ne'er behold Shane's Castle bold or gaze on Mazzereene
Shall my cot e're land on the banks of Bann, Coney Island or Roskeen
Shall I ever stray by the Washing Bay, the weary trout to coy
Or set my line on an evening fine round the shores of green Mountjoy

All for you Ardboe, my tears do flow when I think and call to mind
My parents dear and friends sincere and comrades true and kind
But I hope to graze on your flowery braes e're seven long years come round
And hands to clasp in friendships grasp of those I left behind

My friends out here in America have all that there hearts desire
My pockets filled with dollar bills, I am dressed in the grand attire
I would give it all for one country ball at home by the old hearth stone
In a cabin near Lough Neagh so dear in my own dear native home

And though alas, long years have passed, still I toast that beauteous isle
And short or long on that land of song, may the star of freedom smile
May plenty bloom from the Bann to Toome, and the shamrocks verdant grow
Green o'er my grave by Lough Neagh's waves and the Old Cross of Ardboe


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