Erin’s Lovely Home
You gentlemen of liberty I pray you, lend an ear
To a melancholy story which you shall quickly hear.
While in some foreign country I languish, sigh and mourn,
When I think of those I left behind on Erin's lovely home.
When I was young and in my prime, my age was twenty-one, When I became a servant unto a gentleman.
I served him long and faithfully and very well it’s known, But in cruelty he banished me from Erin’s lovely home.
The reason why he banished me I mean for to let you know. I loved his daughter dearly and she loved me also.
She was of a heavy fortune and of riches I had none.
And that is why they banished me from Erin’s lovely home.
It was in her father’s garden all in the month of June,
We were viewing the sweet flowers all in their youthful bloom
She says, “My dearest Willie, if you will with me roam,
We will bid adieu to those we love in Erin’s lovely home.”
I gave consent that very night along with her to roam
All from her father’s dwelling; it proved my overthrow.
The moon was bright; by the moonlight we both set off alone, Thinking we would get safe away from Erin’s lovely home.
When we arrived in Belfast, it was near the break of day, My love she then made ready our passage for to pay.
Five hundred pound she counted down. “Here, love, ‘tis all your own, You need not grieve for those you leave in Erin’s lovely home.”
It is of our sad misfortune I mean to let you hear, For in a short time after her father did appear.
They marched me back to Homer jail in the county of Tyrone And from that place they banished me from Erin’s lovely home.
The leaving of my country it grieves my heart full sore,
But parting from my own true love it grieves me ten times more.
There are seven long links all in my chain and every link a year Until I do return again to the arms of my dear.
While I lay under sentence before I sailed away
My love she came unto me and to me she did say,
“Cheer up, my heart, and don’t dismay, for you I’ll ne’er disown Until you do return again to Erin’s lovely home.”
