The Glen Of Aherlow

Intro: Verso 1: My name is Patrick Sheehan, and my years are thirty-four Tipperary is my native place, not far from Galtymore I came of honest parents, but now they’re lying low Though many’s the pleasant days we spent in the Glen of Aherlow Verso 2: My father died; I closed his eyes outside the cabin door For the landlord and the sheriff too were there the day before And then my loving mother and my sisters three also Were forced to go with broken hearts from the Glen of Aherlow Verso 3: For three long months, in search of work, I wandered far and near I then went to the poorhouse to see my mother dear The news I heard near broke my heart, but still in all my woe I blessed the friends who made their graves in the Glen of Aherlow Verso 4: Bereft of home and kith and kin, with plenty all around I starved within my cabin, and slept upon the ground But cruel as my lot was, I never did hardship know ’til I joined the English army, far away from Aherlow Verso 5: ‘Rouse up there’, cried the corporal, ‘Ya lazy Irish hound Why don’t you hear the bugle, its call to arms to sound ?’ I found I had been dreaming of the days long, long ago And I woke upon Sebastopol, and not in Aherlow Verso 6: I tried to find my musket, how dark I thought the night O blessed God, it wasn’t dark, it was the broad daylight And when I found that I was blind, my tears began to flow And I longed for even a pauper’s grave in the Glen of Aherlow Verso 7: A poor neglected mendicant, I wander Dublin’s streets My nine months’ pension it being out, I beg from all I meet As I joined my country’s tyrants, my face I can never show Amongst my dear old neighbors in the Glen of Aherlow. Verso 8: So Irish youths, dear countrymen, take heed in what I say For if you join the English ranks, you’ll surely rue the day And whenever you’re tempted, a-soldiering to go Remember poor blind Sheehan from the Glen of Aherlow