Attention pay my countrymen and hear my native news Although my song is sorrowful I hope you'll me excuse I left my native country, foreign lands to see And I bade farewell to Donegal, likewise to Glenswilly
Was on a summer's morning at the dawning of the day I left my peaceful happy home to wander far away Then as I viewed t perhaps no more to see Sure I thought my heart would truly break of Glenswilly
Brave stalwart men around me stood, each comrade loyal and true And as I grasped each well-known hand to bid a last adieu I said, My gallant countrymen, I hope you'll soon be free To see the sunraise the flag more proudly o'er the hills of Glenswilly
It is these cruel English laws, they curse our native isle Must Irishmen always live like slaves or else die in exile? There's not a man to strike a blow or to keep down tyranny Since Lord Leitrim like a dog was shot not far from Glenswilly
No more beside the sycamore I'll hear the blackbird sing No more to meet the blithe cuckoo to welcome back the spring No more I'll plough your fertile fields, a chuisle geal mo chroídhe On foreign soil I'm doomed to toil far, far from Glenswilly
God bless you, dark old Donegal, my own dear native land In dreams I've often seen your hills and your towering mountains grand But the last three thousand miles of life separates these hills from me I'm a poor forlorn exile cast far, far from Glenswilly I'm a poor forlorn exile cast far, far from Glenswilly