Roud No.22001. There are only 2 entries listed, one from Charlie McDonnell of Cushendall, Antrim (on Glens Music CD 'The Town of Cushendall') and the other from Packie Cunningham of Co.Fermanagh.

The Packie Cunningham version appears on a Musical Traditions cd and the lyrics are in the booklet I Pray You Pay Attention and listen to my song (MTCD367-8) (pdf). I give the lyrics below; they are slightly different from the version above and the last verse appears twice (I don't know if that's how he sang it or an error in the notes!). According to the booklet A Sprig of Irish Heather was composed by the renowned Tyrone writer and poet, Felix Kearney.

Mick

---

A SPRIG OF IRISH HEATHER
(Felix Kearney)

Well an Irish mother writing to her son so far away
Said she meant to send a shamrock to wear on Patrick's Day
But the shamrock is a tender plant, its beauty must have fled
It's a sprig of Irish heather I'm sending you instead

  Chorus:
  Just a sprig of Irish heather
  That has seen all kinds of weather
  It has passed the heat of summer
  And survived the winter snow
  I'm sending to remind you
  Of the friends you left behind you
  In Tyrone, among the bushes
  In the days of long ago.

Do you remember Carradonough and the mass rock standing there
Where you knelt upon the heather and you’d left a childish prayer
Often times I wander back there in the evening shadow’s gleam
And I plucked a shamrock from the soil where once you used to kneel

Well the years from us are fleeting and you know we're growing old
While we sit around the fire, and the nights are long and cold
One smile from you would cheer me and make gladness out of gloom
Come back to me macushla, when the shamrock is in bloom.

Well the years from us are fleeting and you know we're growing old
While we sit around the fire, and the nights are long and cold
One smile from you would cheer me and make gladness out of gloom
Come back to me macushla, when the shamrock is in bloom.



Source: www.mtrecords.co.uk/pdf/3678.pdf - Notes for record I Pray You Pay Attention and listen to my song - more traditional songs from around Lough Erne shore from Keith Summers' collection 77-83 (MTCD367-8). Recorded from Packie Cunningham, date and location unknown.