THE ROAD THAT LEADS TO KEEM

Oh, take me back to Achill lands before I pass away,
My eyes are not so good no more, my hair has long turned grey,
I want to see the old home, and the folks that live therein,
I want to walk, and stop and talk, on the road that leads to Keem.

There’s my good friend Johnny Fadian, a cobbler skilled was he,
Tick-tack he’d go upon his last or a tune he’d play to me.
A man of wit and wisdom, no lip you’d give to him,
In case he’d say, “Be on your way,” on the road that leads to Keem.

And to Dú Acha I will go, a village dear to me,
Where Mary Miley, my dear friend, will sit and talk to me,
But when she’d mention Annagh, ‘twould send shivers through the men,
‘Twas then they’d know it was time to go on the road that leads to Keem.

In Keel there was the blacksmith’s forge, and Tom the Smith I knew,
He’d bash the anvil three times o’er, and then he’d hit the shoe,
As he puffed and blew the bellows, the sparks would fly ‘round him,
The he’d shoe your ass, and you would pass on the road that leads to Keem.

So take me back to Achill Isle before I pass away,
My eyes are not so good no more, my hair has long turned grey,
I want to see the old house and the folks that live therein,
I want to walk, and stop and talk, on the road that leads to Keem.

Michael O’Donnell, Pollagh