Now two years have pass'd and gone though they like centuries appear
Since, sad, forlorn, and alone I sail'd from Ireland dear
though I ne'er may see it more my thoughts long languish o’er,
Can I forget my childhood home my own loved Hibernia's shore?
When standing at my rancho door or riding o'er the pampa plain
I silently, long to hear the sweet voices of her labouring swain,
Though the pampas may have fields as fair and green all o’er
To me there is no soil that yields like my own Hibernia's shore.
I long to see my native groves where oft’ I've chased the bounding hare
And snar'd the woodcock and the doves, listening to the cuckoo's voice so clear,
Oh! had I but an eagle's wings across the Atlantic I would soar,
I’d think no more of earthly things ‘til safe upon Hibernia's shore.
Oh could I cope with bards of yore I'd proudly write in words sublime
The praises of her fertile shore while life stands in her youthful prime
For when I'm sinking towards the tomb my feeble hand can trace no more
The words I'd write of that dear home my owned loved Hibernia's shore
Though there are comforts, beyond La Plata's mouth, where the Indian once did freely roam,
Still I'd forsake the pleasures of the South for my own dear native home
Old Erin for thee my heart is weap'd in grief a heart that's Irish to the core
Long may I love the Shamrock Leaf that grows round Hibernia's shore.
Filmed on the farm of Fernando Sheridan, a farmer and vet in Juan José Castelli, Chaco, Argentina, where I have been living on and off the past few years.
Fernando’s grandfather emigrated from Ireland in the 1870's and settled in Capilla del Señor, the same town where Hibernia was published in El Monitor de la Campaña (No. 43, 15 April 1872). The song was signed J. J. M. The video is an outtake from the film "The Trackless Wild, Song of A Wandering Tip."
