The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165565   Message #3972981
Posted By: Jim Dixon
22-Jan-19 - 07:03 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Finnegan, are you really dead?
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Finnegan, are you really dead?
I couldn’t find the lyrics online, so I did the best I could to transcribe them from this YouTube video. Maybe someone else can fill in my gaps.


FINNEGAN, ARE YOU REALLY DEAD?
Written by Shay Healy
As recorded by Danny Doyle

As I roved out through Dublin city early on a fine spring morn,
My thoughts were slowly turned to Joyce and to the town where he was born.
What would he think of Dublin now? A muse sang softly in my head.
Ah sure he was the quare one, fol the diddle ...; Finnegan, are you really dead?

Though ... Street is cold and shuttered; Leopold Bloom is always home.
Down Sackville Street ... and blazes(?) boil(?) and spectres roam.
Sweet Anna Liffey it flows to the sea, past Molly Bloom’s immortal bed.
Ah sure he was the quare one, fol the diddle ...; Finnegan, are you really dead?

Down along by Sandymount, the seagulls wheel and cry.
Young Stephen sees eternity stretch out before his eye,
And far beyond is(or “his”?) exile that’s calling him away
Far from his tower at Sandycove hard fast by Dublin Bay.

And like the seagulls high above, the thoughts spin through his mind
He soars above the city streets that soon he’ll leave behind
He’s blind, though what he loves of her, he thinks he’ll shake her free.
Even in a far-off land, a Dubliner I will be(?).

And as I walked ‘long through Dublin city, as the sun was goin’ down,
Scenes and pictures from his stories filled my head with sights and sounds.
Ah, Dublin, how your son has served you! All across the world, his words are read.
Ah sure he was the quare one, fol the diddle ...; Finnegan, are you really dead?


References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandymount
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandycove
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce_Tower_and_Museum