Lone Shanakyle

Lone Shanakyle

Far, far from the isle of the holy and grand

Where wild oxen fatten and brave men are banned

All lonely and lone in a far distant land

Do I wander and pine for poor Éireann

Lonely and sad I roam far from my native home

Where the wild waves surging foam, headlands appearing

Clouded in silver spray, flashing through heaven's bright ray

For thy glory and pride, lovely Éireann

Sweet, sweet Inis Cathaigh, the sacred, the blessed

Fit place for a saint or a warrior's rest

Your sentinel towers left each storm repressed

Your mourning waves wail for my Éireann

There is nothing now left, holy isle, but thy name

The ruin of thy glory, thy grandeur, thy fame

For foreign laws see thy sadness and pain

That now cause thy anguish, my Éireann

Chorus:

Lonely and sad I roam far from my island home

Where the wild waves surging foam, headlands appearing

Clouded in silver spray, flashing through heaven's bright ray

For thy glory and pride, lovely Éireann

How dearly I longed for to wander once more

To the loved ones I left at my old cabin door

My blessings I'd given a thousand times o'er

And a prayer and a tear for poor Éireann

Sad, sad is my fate in this weary exile

Dark, dark is the night cloud o'er lone Shanakyle

Where the murdered sleep silently pile upon pile

In the coffinless graves of poor Éireann

(Chorus)