The Shamrock Shore

Trad

Ye brave young sons of Erin’s Isle
I hope you will attend awhile
To the wrongs of dear old Ireland I am going to relate
‘Twas black and cursed was the day
That 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
For to seek employment they must roam
Far, far away from their native home
From that sore, oppressed island that they call the shamrock shore

Now Ireland is with plenty blessed
But the people, they 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 cries
The mother’s tears and the orphan’s sighs
In thousands we are driven from home which grieves our heart full sore
We are fraught with famine and disease
We emigrated across the seas
From that sore, oppressed island that they call the shamrock shore

Our sustenance is taken away
Our 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 squander here and there
But if those 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 there
To me no nation could compare
To that sore, oppressed island that they call the shamrock shore

John Bull, he boasts, and he laughs with scorn
And he says that Irishman is born
To be always discontented for at home he cannot agree
But we’ll banish discord from our land
And in harmony like brothers 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

Not to be confused with Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore, or around five other broadside ballads of the same name, but this song does once again tell the plight of Ireland and the Irish.