It's said someday I'll go back to Ireland
If only at the closing of my day
Just to see again the moon rise over Claddagh
And watch the sun go down on Galway Bay

Just to see again the ripple of the trout stream
The women in the meadows making hay
Or to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin


And watch the barefoot children at their play.

The winds that blow across the vales from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands diggin' praties
Speak a language that the strangers do not know

The strangers came and tried to teach us their way
They scorned us just for being what we are
But they might as well go chasing after moonbeams
Or light a penny candle from a star.

And if there's going to be a life hereafter
And somehow I feel sure there's going to be
Then I'll ask my God to let me make my heaven
In that dear land across the Irish sea.