I Used To Have Friends

I used to have friends when i lived in Millstreet
But nowadays mostly strangers there i'd only meet
Since i last lived there 'tis going on twenty five years
For my first homeplace in Duhallow i've shed all of my tears
Not many i'm sure nowadays there i would know
Where the waters of the Cails from Kippagh and the Finnow does flow
On to the Blackwater through old riverside fields where the rushes rank grow
On their sea going journey  by grove and by ditch and hedgerow
Yet in my flights of fancy i often does hear
The pink breasted chaffinch in the Spring of the year
On the highest branch of a sycamore tree
Proclaiming the borders of his territory
The past may be gone but the memories of it remain
And sometimes in fancy i walk in the old fields again.