Another visit to the ITMA’s Inishowen Song Project came up with this appropriately named song. Here the singer pines for his true love as he is stationed far away in Co. Fermanagh. Michael McGonigle sings in Co. Donegal at the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle.

Dark Inishowen

Ye lovers of Beauty so fair and forlorn
So fondless I wander so far from my home
I am off by the moonlight or the break of morning
I’ll be found in the mountains of dark Inishowen.

I strayed ’round a place and they call it Clonmany
In search of a fair maid that I might adore
But a fair maid to love me I could not find any
From the Meendoran bridge to the Gap of Mamore.

Adieu to the place where I once had a fair maid
No wonder when absent that I do make mourn
When I think of those green fields the haunts of that fair one
Sure I pine for my darling in dark Inishowen.

At night when sleeping in my dreams I caress her
Sure I feel as happy as when I was home
When I speak to the vision that bids me caress her
To a bosom that’s pining in dark Inishowen.

Well it’s now I am stationed in the County Fermanagh
Far away from that cottage that I call my own
And if I go back it will be for to wed her
And I’ll live with my darling in dark Inishowen.

Well its many’s the day since I last saw her dwelling
When I think of that cabin I will ne’er see no more
Sure I’ll walk round that wild bay where the wild seas are rolling
From the Tullagh’s black rocks to the gap of Mamore.