A 1922 popular song.
Words by John J. MacIntyre.
Music by Sheela O’Donovan-Rossa.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There were teardrops in my eye
When I bade a sad goodbye
To my little home afar on Erin’s shore
Wistfully I looked around
At our porch of garden ground
Believing I would see it nevermore
But now across the sea
Comes word that Ireland’s free
That nationhood at last she will attain
And so across the foam
I will soon be sailing home
I am going back to Ireland once again
Chorus
I am going back to Ireland once again
To see my childhood’s home in Castlemaine
There I’ll live my young days o’er
In the mem’ries sweet of yore
I am going back to Ireland once again
- Now my mother I can see
As she bade goodbye to me
Where the hawthorne bloomed beside the rippling rill
And my father’s head bowed low
At the thought that I should go
From the little house that stood beside the hill
They’re living yet, thank God
Upon the dear old Sod
And the old home still is standing in the lane
I will sail across the brine
On the good old Cunard Line
I am going back to Ireland once again
Sung here by Fred Feild: