Lyr Add: Sean South of Limerick (Dominic Behan)

Subject: Lyr Add: SEAN SOUTH OF LIMERICK
From: MartinRyan
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 05:37 PM

I promised the words of Dominic Behan's song on Sean South, in a thread I've mislaid! I'm posting them here and will add a link later.

SEAN SOUTH OF LIMERICK

Have you been in Limerick green
And through those woods and valleys
Where often Sean did gaze upon
The beauty of his country?

And did you share his dream so fair
Of each plain and wood and valley
Say did you pause to count the cost
Or like Sean the way to liberty

And did yo find the Poet's mind
Alive and in those valleys
Singing wild in boyish pride
A hymn to vanquish tyranny

And did you see him murdered be
Far from his woods and valleys
Because he heard, because he dared
To heed the call to rally?

And will you go to meet the foe
Through shell shock wood and valley
Or is young Sean in vain now gone
Dead to his dreams of liberty?

Is it in vain his life blood drains
Far from his woods and valleys?
Oh no! we cry, he didn't die
But lives for all Eternity

Taken from "The Singing Irish" by Dominic Behan.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sean South of Limerick
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 04:05 AM

I had marked it, for I have the book too. The name of the thread is Avondale.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sean South of Limerick
From: MartinRyan
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 04:19 AM

Thanks, Wolfgang.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sean South of Limerick
From: GUEST,Bill Lloyd
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 09:01 AM

I knew Dominic Behan in the 1970s, and stayed with him at his house near Lesmahagow.   He sang a slightly different version from the one on Mudcat - just a few phrases changed here and there:


2nd Verse:

And did you share his dream so fair,
All in those woods and valleys,
and think like Sean how very long
His land had lain in slavery.

4th Verse

Because he heard, because he dared
To give the call to rally?

5th Verse

Or is young Sean in vain now gone
And dead his dream of liberty?


Dominic told me that he stood against the IRA for a time, and the meaning of the last verse is that no more martyrs were necessary - we had enough already. He was a fierce republican, but at some point he disagreed with policy or tactics of the IRA, and this was one reason he did not stay in Ireland. I cannot say if this was true - he was a good storyteller! - but that is what he told me...