The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9739   Message #1482211
Posted By: Jim Dixon
11-May-05 - 01:27 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Dawn on the Irish Coast (John Locke)
Subject: Lyr Add: DAWN ON THE IRISH COAST
Here's another version copied from RootsWeb.com: (It's the most complete version I've found so far, but still, whoever transcribed it was a bit careless with the punctuation and maybe some other details.)

DAWN ON THE IRISH COAST

T'anam chun Dia! there it is
The dawn on the hills of Ireland
God's angels lifting the night's black veil
From the fair sweet face of my sireland
Oh Ireland, isn't it grand you look,
Like a bride in her rich adorning
With all the pent up love of my heart
I bid you the top of the morning!

This one short hour pays lavish back,
For many a year of mourning
I'd almost venture another flight
There's so much joy in returning
Watching out for the hallowed shore
All other attractions scorning
Oh Ireland don't you hear me shout
As I bid you top of the morning!

Hi ho upon Cliodhna's shelving strand
The surges are grandly heating
And Kerry is pushing her headlands out
To give us the kindly greeting
Into the shore the sea birds fly
On pinions that know no drooping
And out on the cliffs with welcome charged
A million of waves come trooping.

Oh kindly generous Irishland,
So leal and fair and loving,
No wonder the wandering Celt should think
And dream of you in his roving,
The alien home may have gems and gold
Shadows may never have gloomed it
But the heart will sigh for the absent land
Where the lovelight first illumed it.

And doesn't old Cove look charming there
Watching the wild wave's motion
Leaning her back up against the hills
And the tip of her toes in the ocean
I wonder I don't hear Shandon's bells
Ah, maybe their chiming's over
For it's many a year since I began
The life of the western rover

For 30 summers, a stoir mo chroidhe
Those hills I now feast my eyes on
Neer met my vision save when they rose
Over memory's dim horizon
'Een so twas grand and fair they seemed
In the landscape spread before me
But dreams are dreams and my eyes would ope
To see Texas's skies still oer me.

Oh often upon the Texas plains
When the day and the chase were over
My thoughts would fly oer the weary wave
And around the coastline hover,
And the prayer would rise that some future day
All danger and doubting scorning
I'd help to win for my native land
The light of young liberty's morning.

Now fuller and truer the shore line shows
Was ever a scene so splendid?
I feel the breath of the Munster breeze
Thank God that my exile's ended
Old scenes, old songs, old friends again,
The vale and the cot I was born in
Oh Ireland up from my heart of hearts
I bid you the top of the morning!