2008
G8035 : "The valley lay smiling"
taken 18 years ago, near to Leckaun, Co Leitrim, Ireland

"The valley lay smiling"
Start of a footpath at Doonmorgan leading steeply uphill to the scene described in the ballad "The song of O'Ruark, Prince of Breffni" by Thomas Moore Link
1779-1852, Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, most remembered for the lyrics of "The Minstrel Boy" and "The Last Rose of Summer". The song describes events which led up to the first efforts of Britain to subjugate Ireland.
The first stanza runs:
The valley lay smiling before me,
Where lately I left her behind;
Yet I trembled, and something hung o'er me,
That sadden'd the joy of my mind.
I look'd for the lamp which, she told me,
Should shine when her Pilgrim return'd;
But, though darkness began to infold me,
No lamp from the battlements burn'd!
For the full words see Link
The first stanza runs:
The valley lay smiling before me,
Where lately I left her behind;
Yet I trembled, and something hung o'er me,
That sadden'd the joy of my mind.
I look'd for the lamp which, she told me,
Should shine when her Pilgrim return'd;
But, though darkness began to infold me,
No lamp from the battlements burn'd!
For the full words see Link
