The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #13326 Message #2180478
Posted By: Jim Dixon
27-Oct-07 - 12:00 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/tune Req: Dark Iniseoghain / Dark Innishowen
Subject: Lyr Add: DARK INISHOWEN (David A. Campbell)
Found at movilleinishowen.com:
DARK INISHOWEN
(The Lament of a Young Soldier Parted from His Sweetheart)
by David A. Campbell
Ye maidens of Beauty and swains so forlorn,-
That carelessly wander away from your home,
I am off by the moonlight and by break of morn,-
I'll be found in the valleys of dark Inishowen.
I roved 'round a place that they called fair Clonmany,
In search of a sweetheart that I might adore,
But a maiden to love me I could not find any,
From Meendoran bridge to the Gap of Mamore.
Oh many's the colleen I cast my eye over
From Mary of Malin, to Rose of Moville
All sweet with their smiles and glad eyes filled with laughter
But sure in the end 'twas meself waiting still.
At Bay of Culdaff where the wild waves were breaking.
Carndonagh, with forest-clad mountain and hill
I sought but in vain with a heart that was aching
For one who my thoughts of a bride would fulfil.
Still 'twas back in the shade of old Barnan I found you,
That valley o'ershadowed by mountains so grand,
And I prayed that good angels would ever protect you,
As I placed a keepsake on your little white hand.
And now I am stationed in County Fermanagh,
So far from my loved one and far from my home,
But when I return it will be to the dear one,
That I left in the mountains of dark Inishowen.
[Google Book Search indicates that there is a copy of this poem in Swan, Harry Percival, 'Twixt Foyle and Swilly: Panorama of Ireland's Wonderful Peninsula; a Guide Book and Conspectus of Information Relating to the Barony of Inishowen, County Donegal. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1949.]