"The Isle of Innisfree" 

music by Dick Farrelly

Oh, Inisfree, my island, I'm returning
From wasted years across the wintry sea.
And when I come back to my own dear Ireland,
I'll rest a while beside you, gradh mochroidhe.*

ORIGINAL LYRICS TO THE SONG:
(by Dick Farrelly)

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer,
And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say,
But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away.
And precious things are dreams unto an exile.
They take him o'er the land across the sea --
Especially when it happens he's an exile
From that dear lovely Isle of Inisfree.

And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops
Of this great city, wondrous though it be,
I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter.
I'm once again back home in Inisfree.

I wander o'er green hills through dreamy valleys
And find a peace no other land could know.
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
And watch the rivers laughing as they flow.
And then into a humble shack I wander --
My dear old home -- and tenderly behold
The folks I love around the turf fire gathered.
On bended knees ,their rosary is told.

But dreams don't last --
Though dreams are not forgotten --
And soon I'm back to stern reality.
But though they pave the footways here with gold dust,
I still would choose the Isle of Inisfree.

* Gaelic words meaning "love of my heart"

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