Hello Seán,

Is this the song you're looking for? I've been meaning to start a thread on it for a while. I noted down these lyrics from one of those cornball 'Irish Songs' compilations a while ago. It was one of the least syrupy (but still fairly gooey) tracks of the collection. The song aroused my interest as I'd heard a great song with the same phrase regarding the 'shamrock, rose and thistle' during a BBC Norn Iron documentary about Ulster Singing that was on telly when I went home to Ireland last year. Their version was unaccompanied and I forget the melody The one I've noted down is sung on the tape to a variant of 'Pontchartrain' It's credited, incidentally to Ann & Francie Brolly. I know the phrase in question has a heavy symbolic significance when it comes to Ulster. It also gave Hugh Shields the title for his book on Ulster singing which I hear you're to 'beg, borrow or steal' - not that I've managed either yet. Anyone know if this is the song from which Shields took his title, or better still, if it's the same version as that used for the documentary I mention?

ALONG THE FAUGHAN SIDE

A stream like crystal it flows down
It's plain for to be seen
It's there you'll find the Irish oak
Trimmed with the ivy green
Where shamrock, rose and thistle grow
The lily too beside
And they flourish all together, boys
Along the Faughan side

It's just three miles from Derry
To the bridge at Drumahoe
It's there I've spent some happy days
I'll have you all to know
Where lambs do sport
Fair maids do court
And small fish gently glide
And there's blooming corn on a bright May morn
Along the Faughan side

If you could see this lovely place
All in the summertime
Each bush and tree there looms so gay
Each meadow in its prime
Where the blackbird and the golden thrush
Sing there the livelong day
But now I have a notion of
Going to Amerikay

Oh the leaving of this lovely place
It grieves my heart full sore
But the leaving of my own true love
It grieves me ten times more
But if ever I return again
It's her I'll make my bride
And I'll roll her in my arms, me boys
Along the Faughan side