Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so

This song, an unofficial but popular anthem for the Irish and their descendants in America and Canada, never (and I mean never) fails to make me cry inside (and sometimes outside) whenever I hear it. The song has been interpreted by many listeners as a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora.



Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling.
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so.

But if you come and all the flow'rs are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.

And I shall hear, though soft your tread above me,
And then my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

Alternative lyrics for last two lines:

And you'll not fail to tell me that you love me,
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

Michael Londra sings it beautifully here. Yet again, I cannot help but jerk a tear. Perhaps it is because, other than having a soft spot for themes of war and departing kinsmen (a recurring theme in my family's history), I may be Irish after all, yeah? Tee, hee.