A Long Long Way

The magpie fluting softly on the gray gum and currawong sing in the early day And a long long way from here to Ballydaly and Rathmore even further still away And a long long way from here to Clara mountain and from the quiet fields of Claramore It's depth of Winter now in old Duhallow and cold as it has ever been before. The silent thrush in the cold of the morning forlorn on branch of leafless windswept tree And the forecast for the day is wet and windy a low of zero and a high of three The yellow robin on a sunlit wattle he sings his little ticking melody And a long long way from Millstreet in Duhallow and even further still from Knocknagree. A long long way from Kanturk and Dromtarriffe at least twelve thousand miles of land and sea And a long long way from Meelin and Newmarket and Cullen and Kiskeam and Boherbue And a long long way from the hill of Gortavehy where bracken grow between the rock and stone And even a bit further from east Kerry back to the high fields by the Paps of Shrone. The white backed magpie fluting on the gray gum a bird distinguished by his marvellous song And the yellow robin singing in the sunshine and the bell like notes of the pied currawong But a long long way from the fields by the Blackwater in the early morning in their Winter gray And the countryside of north Cork and Duhallow twelve thousnad miles or maybe more away.