Back To Donegal Lyrics And Guitar Chords
by Rory McLoud. chord structure throughout the whole song (except instrumental parts): G-C-C-G G-C-C-G G-Am-Am-G G-Am-Am-G. Folk song. Home To Donegal Song is the latest to be added to the site about this beautiful County by Nathan Carter .
[G]Back to Done[C]gal Going to see Old [G]Leo
Into Roddens [C]bar Paul don t forget your [G]banjo
Knock up all the [Am]old tribe Laurence, Liam, [G]Billy
Hilary, Eileen, [Am]Seercha on the banks of Lough [G]Swilly
We saw the [G]big yellow moon go [C]down; we played all night in [G]Letterkenny
Singing the Whistling [C]thief all my mates were whistling with [G]me
Playing tunes upon the [Am]ferry from Holy head or [G]Stranraer
[G]Hitched ourselves a [Am]ride to the steps of the Gweedor [G]bar
After rolling out some tunes and all the cans that we could carry
All pile in Seamus Macs bus through the road blocks outside Derry
John shouts for ‘Paddy on the Turnpike’…Laurence shouts ‘Oh can ya/
Everyone we know there we must be in Buncrana
Stephen winks at Dinny Dinny winks at Paul
Tomas is cradling his pipes, Martins cradling a football
Home to see old friends and family, feeling ten feet tall
From West Kilburn to Paddington Basin…back to Donegal
Playing sets of reels and jigs, oh how I feel my soul flies
From the bar to someone’s kitchen, singing to the sunrise
Elliet’s fiddle-bow is scratching, ‘The Devil’s jig’ from her violin
Paul’s long fingers picking ‘The Butchers Apron’, plucking on his banjo skin
(Paddy on the Turnpike)
Steve’s hand is like a humming bird, whipping out rhythm on the mandolin
Smiling like George Formby, it makes me smile to see him grin
Catch the flying tune; it’s skipping and a-rolling in the rhythm
Catching a fiddler’s dark brown eyes, I can’t stop looking in them.
Such a crazy love we can’t get enough
I’m in love with the whole damn crowd of my friends
I’m in love with them; we’re in love with the tune
We’re in love with the dance that will never end
We’re in love with the winding roads that bend
Through the mountains, valleys and down through the Glen
We’re in love with the glimmering light on the hills
We’re in love with the bar that pays all our bills
(Wise Maid)
The rhythm takes a hold of me; I can’t keep my feet still
This one’s for the barman, the one who keep’s my glass filled
Fionualla’s crying a story of love that’s she’s been bursting to tell
Someone’s torn the clanger out of the landlords drinking bell
Ask the landlord to give us some of that beer that we’re helping him to sell
Give us that song, you know how it goes ’the town I love so well’
We don’t know where we going, but we’ll tell you where we’ve been
I’m touching the earth, I’m a travelling Ma and I’m joking with Ossian
I’ve come from the land of the ever-young
I’m a fool who keeps on falling in love
I love women and I can’t get enough, I’ll dance with them till my legs fall off
Teach them the Hokey Kokey, laughing we’ll dance arm in arm
Now we’re off to Downing’s, Ballyshannon and Strabane
Killybegs, Malinhead then Sheephaven and Coleraine
As true to our word the last time we were here that we’d be back again
When we’re travelling we’ll give your love to somebody who knows you
Lock us in here with you land lord we’ve got no homes to go to
Instrumental Bridge / Tune ‘The Pride Of Petravore’
Em-Em-Em-Em D-D-D-D Em-Em-Em-Em B7-B7-Em-Em (2x)
C-C-G-G B7-B7-Em-Em C-C-G-G Em-B7-Em-Em (2x)
(Eileen-Ogue)
I feel I’m tearing myself away I’ll love you and I’ll leave ya
I’ll be back some old day to West Kilburn and Buncranna
The barman’s shouting out to everybody ’Have you got no homes to go to?’
I sing ‘I’ve got no home in this world anymore’ I’m just passing through
Home is where my friends are and you are all part of me
I’ll leave you with this song are you coming
Or are you going to try to stop me.
Other Donegal folk songs here included The Homes Of Donegal which is most likely more well known than all the others.
It is often said that Irish Americans sing more songs about the old country than members of any other ethnic culture in the United States. The abundance of sound recordings of Irish American songs about Ireland which have been produced since the invention of the phonograph offers compelling evidence that this is so. This compilation of classic Columbia recordings presents popular Irish and Irish American songs which celebrate Ireland and her ways, particularly the old traditions and customs associated with the kind of pastoral lifestyle which has been irrevocably lost in the new world of urban twentieth century America.
There is a certain wistful quality to many of these songs because so many lament the physical and psychological effects of the loss of place. Hundreds of years of enforced emigration have deepened this sense of loss. Master American songsmiths were very aware of the market in urban America for skillfully crafted nostalgic songs which would speak to the love and loss of place. Add a particular loved one to the scenario, preferably a sweetheart or a mother, and there was a perfect recipe for commercial success!
While there was a tradition of songwriting which celebrated place in both Ireland and America, there was a difference in that the majority of the Irish songs tended to celebrate specific localities within the country while the majority of the songs about Ireland written in America celebrated either the country itself (e.g. "That's How I Spell I-R-E-L-A-N-D," "A Little Bit Of Heaven," "If There'd Never Been An Ireland") or well known tourist sites such as Killarney or places already enshrined in nineteenth century Irish popular song, such as Galway Bay, Tralee, Kerry or Donegal.
The artists featured on this collection are a diverse group, all renowned in their various fields. Some are Irish born, others are Irish American and others have no Irish ancestry at all but became enamored of particular Irish songs, several of which they went on to record for Columbia Records.
Carmel Quinn is a native of Ireland who immigrated to America in 1955 and made a national reputation on the "Arthur Godfrey Show" singing a distinctive repertoire of Irish and Irish American songs. Her performances on the show helped her become one of the most widely known Irish performing artists in the United States. Four selections of hers from the popular Irish song tradition are featured on this recording. She was presented with a copy of "Isle of Innisfree" by its author Dick Farrelly, a Dublin policeman and was the first to sing the song in public. Later the song became widely popular when it was used as the theme music for the film The Quiet Man. "The Whistling Gypsy," "The Green Glens Of Antrim" and "Galway Bay" come from the Irish popular song tradition-the latter achieving a huge measure of popularity when it was recorded by Bing Crosby in the 1940s.
On the "Arthur Godfrey Show" Quinn met Frank Parker who was by then an established American tenor who loved Irish songs and frequently performed them on television. He opens this recording with a medley of popular Irish and Irish American songs beginning with "A Little Bit Of Heaven" and ending with Chauncey Olcott's enormously popular "My Wild Irish Rose." He also concludes the compilation with another Irish American chestnut, "The Rose of Tralee."
Maureen O'Hara was born in Dublin and made her name in Hollywood after emigrating to the United States in the early 1950s. Though best known as an actress, she performed and recorded numerous Irish and Irish American songs for Columbia Records including the selections included in this collection. The five songs chosen: "It's True That The Women Are Worse Than The Men," "A Kerry Cow," "The Rich Man Died," "Wee Hughie" and "There Was An Old Man" are all whimsical popular Irish songs adapted and arranged for the stage.
The famed American popular singer Kate Smith, who is perhaps best known for her recording of "God Bless America," occasionally sang Irish songs and is featured singing a great nostalgic Irish American Tin Pan Alley lyric-ballad celebrating the land "Where The River Shannon Flows."
Pat Harrington was an American-born Irish tenor who performed extensively in concert and on radio all over the United States. "Back To Donegal" and "If There'd Never Been An Ireland," which he sings on this recording, are good examples of the kind of nostalgic song celebrating the old country that American popular songsmiths churned out in the 1940s and 1950s aimed at the children and grandchildren of a transplanted population.
Brendan O'Dowda has been one of Ireland's most famous tenors since he began broadcasting and recording in the early 1950s. He has always been particularly enamored of the compositions of the great early twentieth century Irish artist and songwriter Percy French, many of which are eminently suited to stage performance. One of his favorite Percy French songs is "Drumcolliher" which he sings with great verve on this recording.
Morton Downey was one of the most famous Irish tenors in the post-John McCormack era and recorded prodigiously. Both he and Carmel Quinn performed together at the inauguration of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He specialized in well-known Irish American standards such as "That's How I Spell I-R-E-L-A-N-D", though on this recording he also performs the popular Irish rebel song "Kevin Barry," written in Dublin in commemoration of the heroic death of an 18-year-old Irish patriot in the Irish War of Independence.
There is a certain wistful quality to many of these songs because so many lament the physical and psychological effects of the loss of place. Hundreds of years of enforced emigration have deepened this sense of loss. Master American songsmiths were very aware of the market in urban America for skillfully crafted nostalgic songs which would speak to the love and loss of place. Add a particular loved one to the scenario, preferably a sweetheart or a mother, and there was a perfect recipe for commercial success!
While there was a tradition of songwriting which celebrated place in both Ireland and America, there was a difference in that the majority of the Irish songs tended to celebrate specific localities within the country while the majority of the songs about Ireland written in America celebrated either the country itself (e.g. "That's How I Spell I-R-E-L-A-N-D," "A Little Bit Of Heaven," "If There'd Never Been An Ireland") or well known tourist sites such as Killarney or places already enshrined in nineteenth century Irish popular song, such as Galway Bay, Tralee, Kerry or Donegal.
The artists featured on this collection are a diverse group, all renowned in their various fields. Some are Irish born, others are Irish American and others have no Irish ancestry at all but became enamored of particular Irish songs, several of which they went on to record for Columbia Records.
Carmel Quinn is a native of Ireland who immigrated to America in 1955 and made a national reputation on the "Arthur Godfrey Show" singing a distinctive repertoire of Irish and Irish American songs. Her performances on the show helped her become one of the most widely known Irish performing artists in the United States. Four selections of hers from the popular Irish song tradition are featured on this recording. She was presented with a copy of "Isle of Innisfree" by its author Dick Farrelly, a Dublin policeman and was the first to sing the song in public. Later the song became widely popular when it was used as the theme music for the film The Quiet Man. "The Whistling Gypsy," "The Green Glens Of Antrim" and "Galway Bay" come from the Irish popular song tradition-the latter achieving a huge measure of popularity when it was recorded by Bing Crosby in the 1940s.
On the "Arthur Godfrey Show" Quinn met Frank Parker who was by then an established American tenor who loved Irish songs and frequently performed them on television. He opens this recording with a medley of popular Irish and Irish American songs beginning with "A Little Bit Of Heaven" and ending with Chauncey Olcott's enormously popular "My Wild Irish Rose." He also concludes the compilation with another Irish American chestnut, "The Rose of Tralee."
Maureen O'Hara was born in Dublin and made her name in Hollywood after emigrating to the United States in the early 1950s. Though best known as an actress, she performed and recorded numerous Irish and Irish American songs for Columbia Records including the selections included in this collection. The five songs chosen: "It's True That The Women Are Worse Than The Men," "A Kerry Cow," "The Rich Man Died," "Wee Hughie" and "There Was An Old Man" are all whimsical popular Irish songs adapted and arranged for the stage.
The famed American popular singer Kate Smith, who is perhaps best known for her recording of "God Bless America," occasionally sang Irish songs and is featured singing a great nostalgic Irish American Tin Pan Alley lyric-ballad celebrating the land "Where The River Shannon Flows."
Pat Harrington was an American-born Irish tenor who performed extensively in concert and on radio all over the United States. "Back To Donegal" and "If There'd Never Been An Ireland," which he sings on this recording, are good examples of the kind of nostalgic song celebrating the old country that American popular songsmiths churned out in the 1940s and 1950s aimed at the children and grandchildren of a transplanted population.
Brendan O'Dowda has been one of Ireland's most famous tenors since he began broadcasting and recording in the early 1950s. He has always been particularly enamored of the compositions of the great early twentieth century Irish artist and songwriter Percy French, many of which are eminently suited to stage performance. One of his favorite Percy French songs is "Drumcolliher" which he sings with great verve on this recording.
Morton Downey was one of the most famous Irish tenors in the post-John McCormack era and recorded prodigiously. Both he and Carmel Quinn performed together at the inauguration of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He specialized in well-known Irish American standards such as "That's How I Spell I-R-E-L-A-N-D", though on this recording he also performs the popular Irish rebel song "Kevin Barry," written in Dublin in commemoration of the heroic death of an 18-year-old Irish patriot in the Irish War of Independence.
