Yearning For Clare (To John O Mahony)

I know a man a decent sort and he's lived in County Clare And he tell me that in his heart he yearns to return to there And that since he's returned to County Cork to Duhallow and Millstreet He find the people boring and life's not half so sweet. An A.C.O.T. advisor with farming folk he has big part to play He give advice on modern methods and on how to make farmimng pay And he imparts his knowledge to quite a very few And I've been told that he knows his job and is good at what he do. But to him there's more to life than work there's social atmosphere And he find quite a difference between County Clare and here They are a friendly type of folk in Clare unstained by snobbery But he find Cork folk different and they treat you differently. He find it hard to re-settle in so hard to settle down In the green Blackwater valley just north of Millstreet Town But he will not return to Clare for him there's no going back As his blood kin are living here and Clare's off of the beaten track. And listening to him speak of Clare stirred the wanderlust in me It tempted me to head off west and shake my fetters free But I may never go to Clare as there I may not find a job And how can one exist if one don't have that living 'bob' I know a man a Millstreet man and one I consider wise And he's an honest sort of a bloke and he doesn't deal in lies And every time he speaks of Clare there's a sadness in his eyes For that land west of the Shannon beneath the western skies.