OK, this is the other thread

Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey)
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46593#692267

Words:

BILLY REILLEY

Copyright 1979 Bonnie Shaljean
(Blue Crescent Music Ltd.)


Billy Reilley at thy rest
Your father calls you from the past
His voice is loud but you are blessed
With sleep and cannot hear him
He doesn't talk much anymore, Billy Reilley

Long time ago you courted me
In the summer days when the world ran free
And love hung ripe on the rowan tree
You played your father's pipes
And all my joys abounded, Billy Reilley

But time and other dreams took hold
The land grew ill and the sky turned cold
And all the things that make young men old
Must send the wild geese flying
You left me with your child, Billy Reilley

Your father raged and made me swear
I'd never tell you but I couldn't bear
Unspoken names and whispering stares
And worst of all the nights
O curse the hour that I wrote you, Billy Reilley

You sailed for home with the next tide in
But the ship was lost and all men within
And now all Ireland's grace can't win you
From the sullen ocean
My heart lies dead at my feet, Billy Reilley

Your father curses the rolling sea
The stormy winds, fair France, and me
And I curse love and my own baby
And life is not the short thing
That they would have you believe, Billy Reilley

The pipes will sing you fast asleep
Where'er you lie in the ocean's keep
Forgive me if I no longer weep
As year by year I stay here
Imprisoned by my sins, Billy Reilley
You'd never recognise me, Billy Reilley