Ireland, I love you !
Lyrics and music : Paul Heyninck

Ireland, I love you ! Ireland, I do love you !
Your sceneries were drawn by the western winds
With a sky always grey, white and blue
Ireland I do love you !

A full Irish breakfast, I know what it means
black pudding and bacon, tomatoes and beans
cereals and toast and tea in a cup
and two little eggs, sunny side up.
And in the evening, I feel quite all right
in the pub with a pint, as black as the night
I sing with the locals “Whack fol the daddy o!”
and a soft melancholic: “Alive, alive-o ”

The abbey and monastery in Clonmacnoise,
were thoroughly destroyed by The Cromwell Boys.
The ruins of castles, of churches and farms
testify ages of slaughter and arms
of plunder, oppression, and wars with no end
and still you welcome everyone as your friend !
“How the? You’re ok ?” And in Gaelic they say !
CEAD MILE FAILTE …..

Sheep for wool and for stew as a main
the music and songs in the pubs entertain
the fiddles and pipes and bodrans sound good.
Those wonderful sounds are lifting my mood
Your beautiful mountains may not be that high,
and one thing is certain: you won't stay dry!
Mount Brandon, Croagh Patrick, and Diamond Hill :
the silence up there gives me a thrill !

In the cemetery in Drumcliff I am not alone
to read the three verses on a chilly grey stone,
by William Yeats: "Cast a cold eye,
on life, on death. Horseman, pass by!"

Achill, Inishowen, Connemara, Tralee
with wonderful sites and places to be
I ‘m longing for The Burren in county Clare,
but the ferry back home waits for me in Rosslare.