Day: May 1, 2016

The Globe-republican 3rd November, 1898 p3(abridged)

God between us and all harm
For I tonight have seen
A banshee in the shadow pass
Along the dark boreen.

And as she went she keened and cried
And combed her long white hair.
She stopped at Molly Reilly’s door,
And sobbed till midnight there.

And is it for himself she moans
Who is so far away?
Or is it Molly Reilly’s death she cries
Until the coming day?

Now Molly thinks her man is gone
A sailor lad to be.
She puts a candle to her door
Each night for him to see.

But he is off to Galway town.
And who dare tell her this?
Enchanted by a woman’s eyes,
Half maddened by her kiss.

So as we go by Molly’s door
We look toward the sea,
And say “May God bring home your lad
Wherever he may be.”

I pray it may be Molly’s self
The banshee keens and cries,
For who dares breathe the tale to her
Be it her man who dies?

For there is sorrow on the way,
For I tonight have seen
A banshee in the shadow pass
Along the dark boreen.