Karan Casey – Shamrock Shore lyrics

You brave young sons of Erin's Isle
I hope you will attend awhile
'Tis the wrongs of dear old Ireland I am going to relate
'Twas black and cursed was the day

When our parliament was taken away
And all of our griefs and sufferings commences from that day
For our hardy sons and daughters fair
To other countries must repair

And leave their native land behind in sorrow to deplore
Fo seek employment they must roam
Far, far away from the native home
From that sore, oppressed island that they call the shamrock shore

Now Ireland is with plenty blessed
But the people, we are sore oppressed
All by those cursed tyrants we are forced for to obey
Some haughty landlords for to please

Our houses and our lands they'll seize
To put fifty farms into one and take us all away
Regardless of the widow's sighs
The mother's tears and orphan's cries

In thousands we were driven from home which grieves my heart full sore
We were forced by famine and disease
To emigrate across the seas
From that sore, opressed island that they called the shamrock shore

Our sustenance all taken away
The tithes and taxes for to pay
To support that law-protected church to which they do adhere
And our Irish gentry, well you know

To other countries they do go
And the money from old Ireland they squandered here and there
For if our squires would stay at home
And not to other countries roam

But to build mills and factories here to employ the laboring poor
For if we had trade and commerce here
To me no nation could compare
To that sore, oppressed island that they call the shamrock shore

John Bull, he boasts, he laughs with scorn
And he says that Irishman is born
To be always discontented for at home we cannot agree
But we'll banish the tyrants from our land

And in harmony like sisters stand
To demand the rights of Ireland, let us all united be
And our parliament in College Green
For to assemble, it will be seen

And happy days in Erin's Isle we soon will have once more
And dear old Ireland soon will be
A great and glorious country
And peace and blessings soon will smile all around the shamrock shore