Traditional: A Stor Mo Chroi
A Stor Mo Chroi
by Brian O'Higgins (1882 - ?)
Full song: href="a-stor-mo-chroi.mp3" target="_blank">MP3 (1.1 meg)
A Stor Mo Chroi is performed by Brian
Hart
Notes: "A Stór Mo Chroí" is Irish and means
approximately "darling of my heart." Sheet
music
Brian O'Higgins was an Irish patriot who took
part in the 1916 Rising and was an active Republican for the rest of his
life. He published a yearly newsletter called the Wolfe Tone
Annual that served as a counterblast to the views propagated by the
`revisionist' official historians in Ireland.
He wrote a large number of patriotic songs and
poems, many under the pen name of Brian na Banban. Most of his works were
written in response to specific events, so they have tended to become lost
to
dusty tomes as memory of the events faded and they lost their
significance. Now when they are sung, they usually require an explanation of
the
events on which they were based.
A Stór Mo Chroí, when you're far away
Far from the land you'll be leaving,
It's many a time by night and by day
That your heart will be sorely grieving.
For the stranger's land may be bright and fair,
And rich in its treasures golden.
But you'll pine, I know, for the long, long ago
And the love that is never olden.
A Stór Mo Chroí, in the stranger's land
There is plenty of wealth and wailing.
Whilst gems adorn the great and the grand
There are faces with hunger pailing.
Though the road is toilsome, and hard to tread
And the lights of their cities will blind you.
Won't you turn a stór to Erin's shore
And the ones that you're leaving behind you.
A Stór Mo Chroí, when the evening's mist
Over mountain and sea is falling,
won't you turn away from the throng
And maybe you'll hear me calling.
For the sound of a voice that is surely missed
For somebody's quick returning.
A ruin, a ruin, oh won't you come back soon
To the ones who will always love you.