Lyrics

Oh Donegal the pride of all I oft times think on thee
To my cottage home where I oft times roamed when I was young and free
Big houses grand on a foreign land I can’t compare at all
With my cottage bright on a winter’s night in the hills of Donegal

Right well I mind the harvest time that woe and dreary day
When the leaving of Donegal for to wander far away
Near Creeslough town my friends stood around I bid farewell to all
And on the van sure I waved my hand to the hills of Donegal

While I gazing back to Barnesmore Gap I saw my own native hills
I thought it no shame nor who could blame it was there I cried my fill
My parents kind run in my mind my friends and comrades all
Oh my heart that did ache sure I thought it would break when leaving Donegal

It’s grá mo chroí I long to see my own native hills again
On a foreign shore my heart feels sore with the exile’s longing pain
If I could but see those mountains free for to come and see for all
And to live where my fore fathers lived and die in Donegal