800 Years A-Growing
(Galleon)

1.
As I Gaze from Shandon view,
I see the streets and laneways,
I roamed with rare abandon as a boy,
I see Cork in all it's glory,
So famed in song and story,
To be back again brings so much peace and joy.

Chorus
So I'll stay on top of Shandon,
'Till the evening sun goes down,
And the river breeze will gently kiss my brow,
There's no peace or sport or play,
When you're exiled far away,
O Cork my home I'll never leave you now.

2.
O there's friendship in the air,
And warmth in every alehouse,
And passion makes the red of Cork succeed,
Where the humour keeps us smiling,
And the girls are so beguiling,
Make the Leeside folk a very special breed.

3.
And the ghosts of many patriots,
Are all around us here,
McSweeney and McCurtain didn't shirk,
O they led by inspiration,
In the struggle for our Nation,
And I'm proud to know they came from rebel Cork.

4.
800 hundred years a-growing,
What pride there is in knowing,
That never more I'll go back to New York,
There's no peace or sport or play,
When you're exiled far away,
From the Heaven that I've found at home in Cork.