See here Thomas Moore's version (Chet, your version's start sounds very promising to me, give us more of it).

Let Erin Remember
(Thomas Moore)

Let Erin remember the days of old,
Ere her faithless sons betrayed her;
When Malachi wore the collar of gold,
Which he won from her proud invader;
When her kings, with standard of green unfurl’d,
Led the Red-Branch knights to danger;
Ere the emerald gem of the western world,
Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh’s bank, as the fisherman strays,
When the clear cold eve’s declining.
He sees the round tower of other days,
In the waves beneath him shining;
Thus shall mem’ry often, in dreams sublime,
Catch a glimpse of days that are over;
Thus sighing, look thro’ the waves of time,
For the long faded glories they cover.