A Sprig of Irish Heather An Irish mother writing to her son so far away Said "I meant to send a shamrock to wear on Patrick's Day But the shamrock is a tender a plant, it's beauty soon will fade So a spring of Irish heather I'm sending you instead" cho: Just a sprig of Irish heather That has seen all kinds of weather It stood the heat of summer And survived the winter's cold I'm sending to remind you Of the friends you left behind you In Tyrone, among the bushes In the days of long ago. But remember Carradonough and the mass rock standing there How we oft'times knelt together and you'd whisp a childish prayer Many times since then I've wandered when the evening shadows steal So I plucked this heather from the spot where once you used to kneel But the years from me are slipping and I know I'm growing old By the fireside lonely sitting, and the nights are dark and cold But I know your smile would cheer me and make sunshine out of blue So come back to me macushla, when the heather is in bloom. (repeat chorus) Just a spring of Irish heather, sent with love from long ago. Recorded by Margo, and Declan Nerney, in Ireland. BO'B oct97
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!