The Sea Around Us

They say that the lakes of Killarney are fair
No stream like the Liffey could ever compare
If it’s water you want you’ll find nothing more rare
Than the stuff they make down by the ocean

The sea, oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide
Long may it stay between England and me
It’s a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water

Tom Moore made his waters made fame and renown
A great lover of anything dressed in a crown
In brandy the bandy old Saxon he’d drown
But throw ne’er a one into the ocean

The sea, oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide
Long may it stay between England and me
It’s a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water

The Scots have their whisky, the Welsh have their speech
And their poets are paid about tenpence a week
Provided no hard words on England they speak
Oh Lord! What a price for devotion

The sea, oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide
Long may it stay between England and me
It’s a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water

The Danes came to Ireland with nothing to do
But dream of the plundered old Irish they slew
Yeh will in your Viking, said Brian Boru
And he threw them back into the ocean

The sea, oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide
Long may it stay between England and me
It’s a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water

Two foreign old monarchs in battle did join
Each wanting each head on the back of a coin
If the Irish had sense they’d drowned both in the Boyne
And partition throw into the ocean

The sea, oh the sea is the gradh geal mo croide
Long may it stay between England and me
It’s a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water