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The Shores of Lough Bran

[ Roud 9658 ; DT LOUGBRAN ; Mudcat 6993 ; trad.]

The Boys of the Lough sang The Shores of Lough Bran on their 1975 Transatlantic live album, III and on the 1999 EFDSS anthology Root & Branch 1: A New World They noted:

Emigration is the theme of a large number of Ireland’s traditional songs. The Shores of Lough Bran comes from the Irish county most depopulated by emigration, County Leitrim. The singer tells us merely that he is bound for a land “far away from the lovely Erin, and the shores of Lough Bran”. Cathal [McConnell] collected the beautiful Leitrim air in neighbouring Fermanagh from a fine traditional singer, John McManus of Aughkillymande. A less ornamented version of the same air was recorded in the 30’s by Delia Murphy. The song is also sung to the air of The Maid of Bunclody.

Sean Doyle sang The Shores of Lough Bran in 2004 on his Compass album The Light and the Half-Light.

Niamh Parsons sang Shores of Lough Bran on her and Graham Dunne’s 2015 album Kind Providence. She noted:

I always loved this Co. Leitrim song since I first heard it from Dolores Keane. I found some extra verses online on the Mudcat Café.

Lyrics

Niamh Parsons sings Shores of Lough Bran

Sit you down loyal comrades, sit you down for a while,
’Til I spend my last hours in Erin’s green isle.
Come fill up your glasses and we’ll drink hand in hand,
For tomorrow I’ll be leaving the shores of Lough Bran.

There’s my father and mother you can now hear their cry,
With their tears bewailing, would moisten your eye.
But I will assist them, please God, if I can,
Far away from lovely Erin and the shores of Lough Bran.

No more will I ramble ’round Hartnett’s green hills,
And the place I love dearest is down by the mill.
It’s great fertile valley where oft times I ran,
And inhaled the fresh breezes round the shores of Lough Bran.

Our fathers before us were forced for to roam,
’Twas the laws of coercion drove them from their home.
But the Heavens made for Ireland a scheme and a plan,
That sent our sons roaming like wild geese from Lough Bran.

In the oncoming morning I’ll be bidding adieu
To Leitrim, Drumshanbo and sweet Carrick too.
But no matter what fortunes I may make far away
My thoughts will be with you by night and by day.

My thoughts will be with you, while life’s course is spanned,
Far away from lovely Erin and the shores of Lough Bran.