Welcome Paddy Home

Traditional
Key of B flat: Capo 3 G

I heard this gentle song once at a festival in Carbonnear, Newfoundland. I subsequently tried to find the lyrics with no success. Later on a fine singer by the name of Ed Fitzgerald kindly gave me the words when I played in Prince Edward Island. Ed and his wife Ruth have also recorded the song.

I am a true born Irishman
I'll never deny what I am
I was born in the sweet Tipperary, boys
Three thousand miles from this land

Chorus:
Hooray me boys, hooray
No more do I wish for to roam
For the sun it will shine in the harvest time
To welcome Paddy home

Now the girls they're young and they're frisky
They'll take you by the hand
Sayin' "Jimmy mo chroi, won't you come with me
And we'll welcome Paddy home"

Chorus

Then in came the unwelcome strangers
And settled all over the land
The horse and the plough, the ox and the sow
Fell into the strangers hands

Chorus

Now the Scotsman may boast of the thistle
And the English may boast of the rose
But Paddy can boast of the Emerald Isle
Where the dear little shamrock grows

Chorus

Mo chroi: my heart