Just twenty years ago today
I grasped my mother's hand
She kissed and blessed her only son
Going to a foreign land
The neighbours took me from her breast
And told her I must go
Yet I could hear my mother's voice
Though her words were faint and low

Chorus
O goodbye Johnny dear, and when you're far away,
Don't forget your dear old mother, far across the say (sea)
Write a letter now and then and send her all you can
And don't forget where e'er you roam, that you're an Irish man.

We sailed away from Queenstown,
That is the Cove of Cork
A very pleasant voyage we had
And soon were in New York
I had plenty of friends to meet me there
And work I got next day
But with all the hospitality
I could hear my mother say

One day a letter came to me
From far across the sea
It came from dear old Ireland
It was addressed to me
And after I had opened it
Sure this is what I read
My dear old John, I'm sorry to say
That your poor old mother's dead

Written by Johnny Patterson