TheOldIrishSongs©2023TonyFallon0508
I played all kinds of Irish music and songs for years
Some happy or funny while other ones brought tears
There were many that I knew almost every note
And loved the songs McCarthy and McCauley wrote
There were songs about old winding narrow country lanes
Leaving on ships and later coming home on planes
there were songs about sad men who never married
And women with so many children who were harried
I loved Frank Hall's cute one way funny talks on the phones
And all the many new rebel songs by the Wolfe Tones
Many had the radio on while still in bed
My mother had a portable milking in the shed
I remember Athlone songs sung by Brendan Shine
And Dana about the Mayo holy Knock Shrine
Pecker Dunne made us think of the travelling man
And in England they were packed in John Murphy's van
Maggy Barry was a busker which is now a word
She put away Guinness but her words were not slurred
Foster and Allen took us back home to Castlebar
And the Tipperary girl would visit in a car
There were many songs of hero's in 1916
And hero Kevin Barry who was only eighteen
For Sean South and Fergal O'Hanlon we still grieve
They died together for Ireland one cold New Years eve
The troubles in the north went on for far too long
Bobby Sands and his comrades are remembered in song
Great females Mary Black and Maura O'Connell
On the country side Big Tom and Daniel O'Donnell
Brendan Grace and Maureen Potter were Dublin witty
And Ronny Drew's voice that was described as gritty
there were roses in every county both east and west
and girls got crowned roses at an annual contest
When it came to songs New York was never far away
And over here Bing Crosby sang about Galway bay
Somewhere in the world on most nights and afternoons
From Montreal to Adelaide they play our tunes
Old Irish songs are being saved by college stations
And used by WFUV to raise operating donations
