*AN EXILE FROM BEARA'S SHORES 1) The flowers bloom, the waters gleam, the fields are covered green; the trees are decked in foliage how beautiful that's been. 'Tis hard to part from all we love, on a bright midsummer's day, and bid farewell to home and friends and sail down Bantry Bay. 2) To leave the land that gave me birth, it grieves my heart so sore. But to leave it bound in slavery, it grieves me 10 times more. For many's the son and daughter fair went down by foregn's way, which leaves me homeless, poor and fair as I sail down Bantry Bay. 3) I stood upon the steamer's deck. For friends of old I sighed --- in Castletown, sweet Rosmacowen, Bere Island by the tide; and lovely hills and fields so green where I spent happy days. and as I viewed, my eyes they filled with tears down Bantry Bay. 4) Oh God be with you Ireland, my friends and comrades too While life remains with me out here, to you I will be true, and when my days on earth are o'er and I no longer roam; though buried in a foreign land, there's still no place like home. ---- an old man for Riobard. *