Down in Sweet Mayo (Digital Download)

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Down in Sweet Mayo (Digital Download)

$1.25

(Digital Download)

'Down in Sweet Mayo' is a biographical song written for my late Grandma Murphy before she died. It is about her father Jim Ryan (my great-grandfather) told through her eyes. The song pays tribute to his sacrifice and that of countless other immigrants from previous (and current) generations who took on a life of struggle to provide a better future for their families. The song tips its hat to Ryan's Bar in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo - a bar that is run by my Grandma's cousin Tommy and his wife Bernie.

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Lyrics

Verse/Refrain 1

My father was a young man when he left old Erin’s Isle

With little left to his name in the world, but that famous Irish Smile

And if not for his courageous soul with nowhere left to go

I’d not been born in America, but Down in Sweet Mayo

Verse/Refrain 2

The hard Atlantic threw him to Lady Liberty

He made his way to Chicago ya know; tried to find work on the streets

The signs hung in the windows; No Irish Need Apply

Oh, but there was still so much more opportunity there then Down in Sweet Mayo

Verse/Refrain 3

My father was a proud man living the immigrant life

Worked his way up to a respectable job when pneumonia took his young wife

And when the Great Depression attacked us, my father’s love was our gold

He taught us the hard lessons he learned as a boy Down in Sweet Mayo

Bridge

I want to go, oh Lord let me go back to my father’s home

I want to go, Lord let me down slow

Verse/Refrain 4

If you’re going to Kiltimagh, would you stop into Ryan’s Bar

Look up Tommy Ryan for me send his cousin’s love from a-far

Tell him I’m doing fine in America, but I long for a Guinness back home

And I’m dreaming of when I’ll be drinking with him

Down in Sweet Mayo (4x)

Written & Arranged by Chris Murphy