Lyr Req: Dearest Home on the Banks of the Feale

Subject: The banks of tthe Feale lyrics
From: GUEST,shaun
Date: 21 Jan 18 - 05:10 AM

Howdo all,
I'm trying to find the lyrics to The Banks of the Feale as sung by Deirdre O'Scanlon. Thank you for any help in advance.

Subject: RE: The banks of tthe Feale
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 21 Jan 18 - 11:53 AM

I think you mean Deirdre Scanlan. The lyrics can easily be transcribed from this video.

The Banks of the Feale

Subject: Lyr Add: DEAREST HOME ON THE BANKS OF THE FEALE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 08:40 AM

I found these lyrics, copied verbatim, at several places on the Internet. One of them has semi-official status, having been printed in a tourism brochure for Abbeyfeale. However, no source is identified there. Another source attributes the song to "local balladeer, Tade Gowran."


DEAREST HOME ON THE BANKS OF THE FEALE

Dearest home of my youth, oh how painful
    it is to be parted from thee.
There are others who loved you as I do,
    and do seek for a home o'er the sea.
But no matter where e'er I may wander,
    my thoughts I will never conceal.
I will always think of you the fonder,
    dearest home on the Banks of the Feale.

On the cliff by the side of that river,
    a hundred feet over the strand,
They erected a number of tombstones,
    where the ruins of the Old Abbey stand.
Where oft our departed forefathers,
    from the Sassanach Foe had to steal,
To hear Holy Mass on a Sunday,
    in the churchyard at sweet Abbeyfeale.

And when I'm in the land of the stranger,
    away far away o'er the foam.
If in safety I wander, or danger,
    my thoughts will fly back to my home.
And when life's weary journey is ended,
    I know that contented I'll feel,
To be laid in the ruins of that Abbey,
    in the churchyard in sweet Abbeyfeale.