A SPRIG OF IRISH HEATHER

An Irish mother writing to her son so far away

Said: “ I meant to send a shamrock for to wear on Patrick’s Day

But the shamrock is a tender plant, it's beauty might have fled

So a sprig of Irish heather I'm sending you instead.

​

( Chorus)

Just a sprig of Irish heather , that has seen all kinds of weather.

Withstood the heat of Summer, survived long winter’s snow.

I have sent it to remind you of the friends you left behind you,

In Tyrone among the bushes and the days of long ago.

D'You remember Corradinna and the Mass Rock standing there?

Where we often knelt together, and you lisped a childish prayer.

Many times since then I’ve wandered there, when the evening shadows steal,

 And I plucked this heather from the sod where once you used to kneel.

( Chorus)

​

Just a sprig of Irish heather , that has seen all kinds of weather.

Withstood the heat of Summer, survived long winter’s snow.

I have sent it to remind you of the friends you left behind you,

 In Tyrone among the bushes and the days of long ago.

​

Now the years from me are flitting, and I know I’m growing old,

By the fireside lonely sitting when the winter nights are cold.

But I know your smile would cheer me, and make sunshine out of gloom

So come back to me, a cushla, when the heather is in bloom.

​

( Chorus)

​

Just a sprig of Irish heather , that has seen all kinds of weather.

Withstood the heat of Summer, survived long winter’s snow.

I have sent it to remind you of the friends you left behind you,

 In Tyrone among the bushes and the days of long ago.