Dunala

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The Lambeg Drummer (Masters of Tradition) Lyrics

[Verse 1]

I met her on a far Greek isle

Our accents Irish, a glance, a smile

The girl I could not love at home

I loved in Greece and later, Rome

All through France and the dust of Spain

Oh Christ I’ll never love like that again

All through that long hot pagan summer

Now she’s the wife of a Lambeg Drummer

[Verse 2]

She touched my cheek in Brittany

"'Tis a shame you’re Mick, not Sam", said she

"or Cecil, Stewart, Ian, Rob or

Ivan, Billy, Jack or Bob

You’re locked inside some Fenian dream

You long for things that might have been

But let’s not waste what’s left of summеr

Before I wed my Lambеg Drummer."

[Verse 3]

Sometimes I’d watch her while she’d sleep

From firelight soft to shadows deep

And wonder why sly Cupid’s dart

Must miss the head and wound the heart

And I knew it all too soon would end

Two hearts not lost, just out on lend

And one day I’d reclaim mine from her

And set her’s free, for her Lambeg Drummer[Verse 4]

We wandered a deserted beach

Though I held her hand she was out of reach

Side by side though both alone

We talked about the news from home

And I knew ‘twas time for letting go

Of this sweet and most beloved foe

For her ears were tuned to a tribal thunder

That brought her home to her Lambeg Drummer

[Verse 5]

In a drab Dutch town we said goodbye

I had to hitch, she chose to fly

It was only as she turned to go

I told her what she had to know

That had she been Mary, Breege or Kate

We’d have walked together through the airport gate

And I’d never more be parted from her

By time or tide or a Lambeg Drummer

[Verse 6]

Then I watched the Orange Twelfth parade

I was half impressed and half dismayed

And there I saw the girl I loved

All hatted, sashed, bemedalled, gloved

More lovely than she’d ever been

When she was Orange and I was Green

And our love that blazed that Spanish summer

She's squandered now on a Lambeg Drummer[Outro]

But had she been Mary, Breege or Kate

We’d have walked together through the airport gate

And I’d never more be parted from her

By time or tide or a Lambeg Drummer