Merasheen

by Sam Butler

She’s a home on the ocean on Merasheen Shore
She’s a home on the ocean where the white billows roar
We’ll go back to find you, the land of our birth
There’s no place quite like you, no, there’s no place on earth.

The high hills and valleys, the rocks and the trees
The sunkers and headlands, the narrows and seas
The brave lads that worked you, they’re not there anymore
They all made their mark, there on Merasheen Shore.

There’s Long Point and Fox Point and Dirty Rock Cove
The land of our fathers, The land that we love
There’s the Ennis’ and Pomroys, the Wilsons and all
With the high hills behind you, it’s the sea that does call.

There’s fourteen dear Sisters and five native priests
They’re all Merasheeners and abroad they do teach
There’s captains and scholars, there’s nurses and such
They all got their start from a man that was Dutch.

There’s Merasheen Bank that stands out from the shore
They loaded their boats, they could carry no more.
Then there’s a seven mile run in rough seas and tide
And you go through the gut with the hills on each side.

When the work is all over and the boats hauled ashore
There’s weddings and dances on Merasheen Shore.
There’s tall tales and music and songs they do sing
Some people were raised there, are my next of kin.