Goodbye Johnny Dear Lyrics

Just twenty years ago today, I held my mother's hand
As she kissed and blessed her only son, going to a foreign land
The neighbours took me from her breast and told her I must go
But I could hear my mother's words, tho' they were faint and low
Goodbye, Johnny dear, when you're far away
Don't forget your dear old mother far across the sea
Write a letter now and then and send her all you can
And don't forget where e'er you roam that you're an Irishman

I sailed away from Queenstown, that is the coast of Cork
A very pleasant voyage we had and soon were in New York
My friends came to meet me there and work I got next day
But thro' all this hospitality I could hear my mother say
Goodbye, Johnny dear, when you're far away
Don't forget your dear old mother far across the sea
Write a letter now and then and send her all you can
And don't forget where e'er you roam that you're an Irishman

One day a letter came to me, it came from Ireland
The postmark showed it came from home, it was not my mother's hand
T'was father who had wrote to say that she had passed away
And just as if from Heaven above I could hear my mother say