The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #105200 Message #2163654
Posted By: GUEST,Young Buchan
04-Oct-07 - 11:02 AM
Thread Name: songs on emigration
Subject: ADD: Derry So Fair
Derry So Fair Collected by Robin Morton in Ulster in the 60s. Ought to remember the singer, but can't.
She left the fair shores of her own native Ireland; She left them at noon on a sunshiny day. She bade fond farewell to her friends and relations And she set sail for America so far far away.
It was little she thought as she stepped on the liner That bore her away from the Foyle's sunny shore It was little she thought as she stepped on the liner That her own beloved Derry she'd never see more.
She landed one morning in New York's big city Amidst all the hustle and bustle and care And she gazed in surprise at the New York skyscrapers And wished she was back home in her Derry so fare.
For years there she worked in a big mill in Boston; The room it was dark and no sun did shine there. And the roses soon left the cheeks of young Ethna, And she pined like a caged bird for Derry so fair.
One night as she lay in her cold attic chamber She dreamed that her own darling truelove was there. But it was the angel of Death that so softly came nigh her And took away Ethna from this sad world of care.
We dug her a grave out at Holy Cross Abbey Where many the exile a grave has found there; One small sprig of shamrock we planted above her And she sleeps her last sleep far far from Derry so fair.