To Be Irish Song Lyrics And Sheet Music

Words by Patrick O'Sullivan Music by Peadar Long.This was one of the songs  prepared for the oral history stage play Irish Night

You don't know you're Irish 
till you're Irish no more, 
you don't know you're Irish 
till you walk out the door 
and carry your suitcase 
to some foreign shore 
so is this what it means 
to be Irish?

A son or a daughter,
that's how you were known, 
the child of your father,
your mother's dear son.
You were never uncounted 
and never alone:
you didn't know what it meant 
to be Irish.

You lived in the house 
at the head of the glen, 
you walked to the chapel
as one of the men.
You stood in the doorway
then walked back again:
it was easy 
enough to be Irish.

You don't know you're Irish 
till your Ireland is gone, 
hull down in the mist 
of a soft Irish dawn,
held down in the mist of 
a memory half gone: 
tell me, what's it like 
to be Irish?