Skibbereen

Old Irish song set during the Great Irish Famine of the mid-nineteenth Century.

O, Father dear, I ofttimes heard you talk of Erin's Isle
Her valleys green, her lofty scene, her mountains rude and wild
You said it was a pleasant place wherein a prince might dwell
Why have you then forsaken her, the reason to me tell?

My son, I loved our native land with energy and pride
Until a blight fell on all my crops and my sheep and cattle died
The rents and taxes were to pay, I could not them redeem
And that's the cruel reason why I left Old Skibbereen

It's well I do remember on a bleak November's day
The bailiff and the landlord came to drive us all away
They set the roof on fire with their cursed English spleen
And I heaved a sigh and I said goodbye to dear Old Skibbereen

Your mother, too, God rest her soul, lay on the snowy ground
She fainted in her anguish of the desolation round
She never rose, but passed away from life to immortal dream
And found a quiet grave, my boy, in lovely Skibbereen

And you were only two years old and feeble was your frame
I could not leave you with my friends for you bore your fathers name
I wrapped you in my cota mor at the dead of night unseen
And that's another reason that I left Old Skibbereen

Oh father dear, the day will come when on vengeance we shall call
And Irish men both stout and tall will rally unto the call
I'll be the man to lead the van, beneath our flag of green
And loud and high we'll raise the cry, "Revenge for Skibbereen!"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Skibbereen
• Irish
• folk
• music
• famine
• acoustic
• guitar
• taylor
• 810

[MrMueslie]

Wow, this is one of the best interpretation I ever seen. I've tried to play this song too, but that was .... not very nice to hear :D Good work ;)

[classican]

@MrMueslie Thank you very much, I appreciate you taking time to listen.

[spiceislerep]

lovely lovely version but i have to agree that the sr1m bloke is far the best version of this great song god bless eire

[classican]

@spiceislerep Thank you very much for listening.

[IamHelenKeller]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the fine performance....

Always a pleasure to listen to your videos, my friend!

Nice work....as usual.

5***** : )

[classican]

@IamHelenKeller Thank you very much my friend.

[CunneyFull]

We're can I get the tabs?

Great song beautiful playing :)

[classican]

@kend16 Well I suppose it doesn't matter you come from this is still a great song, thank you for listening.

[kend16]

This was my dad's party piece, though God only knows why, as he was a Dublin man

through and through. However, this is the nearest rendition to his as far as I can recall.

He was a gentle man.

[Provo2011]

@daydreamer61602 Are youse talking about that toothless fuck singing a capella? If so, that horrible. How dare you, sir.