The Tumbled Down Schoolhouse at Umarabee

Words: Michael McCarthy
Air: Traditional

After years of absence and recollection
I again did visit my dear old home
To see my people friends and neighbours
Whom I found quite happy round Ruhillmore

In each proud dwelling which I did visit
Was full and plenty and wealth galore
Barns bursting with hay and corn
By the sturdy farmers of Ruhillmore

Along the river I strolled at leisure
Accompanied by a youthful pal
To visit scenes where in days of boyhood
I swam the waters of Poll Na Staill

My joys and rambles o'er paths of childhood
Had filled my heart with estacy
'Till I beheld with grief and sorrow
Our tumbled schoolhouse at Umarabee

The walls were shattered the roof was missing
No doors no windows there could I see
No children's voices nor teachers lecture
A forlorn churchyard it seemed to me

I've seen this new one which is a beauty
But its spacious classrooms appeal not to me
For my heart is centred where I was cultured
In that tumbled schoolhouse at Umarabee

They say 'twas haunted you may believe it
Not by ghosts or fairies or the banshee
But by hosts of student's throughout the nation
For education at Umarabee

Were I endowed with a poet’s talent
Or the gifted pen of the famed Magee
In history's pages I'd pen the praises
Of our famous schoolhouse at Umarabee