THE HILL OF KNOCKNASHEE

Dear friends we meet in love tonight
On Columba's tranquil shore.
Three thousand miles from Erin's Isle
That we might see no more.
far dearer still is that fair hill
Than any other to me.
And in our own dear native tongue
They call it Knocknashee.

So dear to me fond memories
Sweet recollections bring.
How oft I've listened the live long day
To the thrush and blackbird sing.
How softly did that cuckoo call
From out yon hollow tree.
And how sweet the sound re-echoes around
The hill of Knocknashee.

How deeply pictured in my mind
The sights from there I've seen.
There's Keash and Geevagh, Ballymote
And the hills around Gorteen.
The lakes and groves around Temple-House
And stream sounds spreadingly.
Oh, the Heavens be with you, Carrowmore
And the hill of Knocknashee.

There stands the ruined abbey where
Our people's bones now rest.
That same dear land that gave them birth
Now calls them to her breast.
Whilst I am forced to leave my home
By a foreign tyranny.
Farewell, farewell to you Carrowmore
And the hill of Knocknashee.

'Tis oft I have viewed your mighty crops
Whilst blooming in their prime. Along the mountain side.
The River Moy so gently flows
From there unto the sea.
Farewell to you, farewell to all
From the hill of Knocknashee.

Farewell to evening dances
Where our merry comrades meet.
When the fiddler said, "Now boys and girls,
Get up and shake your feet!"
For it's there you'll met those colleens fair
Who would fill your heart with glee.
Sure I'd risk my life to make my wife
A girl from Knocknashee.

Farewell to you, brave comrades all
To part you makes me mourn.
My warm heart I'll give to you
As my back I'm forced to turn.
One hundred chances at the one
That I never more will see.
Those good and kind old neighbors round
The hill of Knocknashee.

Now the time are past since I have gone
The kids have now turned grey.
Young lives rise up from every heart
Oh, the old ones fade away
This mournful, sorrowful exile
To return, what's left for me?
So farewell, farewell to you Carrowmore,
And the Hill of Knocknashee.

The melody is PADDY WEST with out the chorus but much slower(than I've heard it)!

Many thanks to Bernard Flaherty who inserted a map of this very region with all the place names in his collection of Sligo music called, The Trip to Sligo.

The words are as I heard them on Colm O'Donnell's recording, Farewell to Evening Dances.

Brían