Erin’s Lovely Home

Come all you sons of Paddy's land and listen onto me
Till I relate of the hardships great a crossing over the sea
For the want of bread ten thousands fled so far across the foam
And left the land where they were born called Erin's lovely home

Black forty seven I'll never forget when the fever it stalked the land
And the famine without mercy it stretched forth it's dreadful hand
There's many the child in cold death lay their parents they did mourn
While the landlord's agents pulled down our roofs in Erin's lovely home

My father, was a farming man reared to industry
He had two sons, they were men strong, and lovely daughters three
Our farm was too small to feed us all so some of us had to roam
With sisters two I bid adieu to Erin's lovely home

My father sold the second cow and he borrowed twenty pounds
And in the merry month of May we sailed from Sligo town
There were thousands more left upon the shore all anxious for to roam
And leave the land where they were born called Erin's lovely home

We were scarcely seven days at sea when the fever it plagued our crew
They were falling like the autumn leaves bidding friends and life adieu
Now the raging waves sweep o'er their graves, amidst the ocean foam
Our friends may mourn for we'll never return to Erin's lovely home

My loving sisters they both took ill and their lives they were taken away
And oh it grieved my heart full sore for to cast them in the sea
Down in the deep now they do sleep they never more will roam
But in heaven I'll meet with my sisters sweet from Erin's lovely home

Now I'm in the land of liberty where plenty it does abound
Where the labouring man gets full reward for the tilling of his ground
There's naught I can see that can comfort me as an exile I must roam
And end my days far far away from Erin's lovely home