From Legends, Ballads and Songs of the Lee by John Fitzgerald (Cork: Henry & Coghlan, 1862), page 3:


THE EXILE'S RETURN.
Air—"Ellen Loraine."

I have wander'd an exile, 'mid cold-hearted strangers,
Far, far, from my home and the beautiful Lee;
I have struggled alone through all sorrows and dangers,
And brav'd every fate on the land and the sea.
Through Columbia's wild forests, or Ind's spicy bowers,
On the great foreign rivers, whose sands are of gold,
I have sigh'd for thee still, 'mid the birds and the flowers,
I have lov'd thee, and will, till this heart shall grow cold.

I have rov'd with fair maidens with dark flowing tresses,
And beautiful eyes have look'd kindly on me,
But I thought with regret of the smiles and caresses
Of a fair-hair'd young maiden that dwelt by the Lee.
I have come back again, but she's not in her bower,
Where the river flows past, with its calm tiny wave;
I have call'd her in vain, for the ivy-crown'd tower
Of sweet Inniscarra o'ershadows her grave.

The home of my childhood to ruin is falling,
The lov'd ones that blest it shall greet me no more;
Yet I gaze on it still, joyous visions recalling,
Though the long grass has grown on the step of the door.
I shall rest with them soon, with the shamrock above me,
From my dear native Cork never more shall I roam,
Till I'm laid in the grave with the dear ones that lov'd me,
As in death they shall welcome their wanderer home.

[The McNulty Family recorded this song under the title EXILE FROM CORK. You can hear their version at The Internet Archive, where it is item #17 on the menu, called "Track 26"—or click for an MP3. They omit the parts I have put in italics, and a few other words are changed.]

[Another somewhat different version of this song has been posted in another thread under the title SWEET INISHCARA.]