As an Irishman, I am intimately familiar with this song - I've heard it at every type of sporting occasion, and even sung it on stage. Even so, I post it not so much because today is St. Patrick's Day, but to mark the loss of it's author this past weekend.
Fields of Athenry | |
By a lonely prison wall | |
I heard a young girl calling | |
Michael, they have taken you away | |
For you stole Trevelyan's corn | |
So the young might see the morn | |
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay | |
Chorus: | |
Low lie the fields of Athenry | |
Where once we watched the small free birds fly | |
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing | |
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry | |
By a lonely prison wall | |
I heard a young man calling | |
Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free | |
Against the famine and the crown | |
I rebelled, they cut me down | |
Now you must raise our child with dignity | |
Chorus | |
By a lonely harbour wall | |
She watched the last star falling | |
As that prison ship sailed out against the sky | |
For she lived in hope and pray | |
For her love in Botany Bay | |
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry | |
Chorus |