Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore
(Click on title to play tune)
Oh fare thee well to Ireland, my own dear native land
It breaks my heart to see friends part, for it’s then that the tear drops fall
I’m on my way to Amerikay, will I ever see home once more
For now I leave my own true love, and Paddy’s green shamrock shore

From Londonderry we did sail, it being the fourth of May
Pleasant weather I’m sure we had, going to Amerikay
Fresh water then we did take in, one hundred tons or more
For fear we’d be short on the other side, far from the shamrock shore

Two of our anchors we did weigh, before we left the quay
Down the river we were towed, till we came to Botany Bay
We saw that night the grandest sight, we ever saw before
The sun going down ‘tween sea and sky, far from the shamrock shore

Early next morning we were sea-sick all, not one of us was free
I myself was confined to bed, with no one to pity me
No father or no mother, to raise my head when sore
That made me think of the friends I left, on the lonely shamrock shore

We landed safely in New York, after four and twenty days
Each comrade by the hand we took, and we marched through different ways
Each one drank a flowing glass, as we might meet no more
With flowing bumpers we drank a health, to the lonely shamrock shore

Words and tune from Folk Songs and Ballads Popular in Ireland, Vol. 4, Ossian Publications, 1989. Sequenced by Tom Connole.

paddysgrn.htm 2/7/07