This song My Own Dear Millstreet Home is quite beautiful. Recorded by Eileen Sheehan of Abbeydorney in the 1960’s, they don’t make them like this any more. But, does anyone know who wrote this song?
My Own Dear Millstreet Home
A vision bright I saw last night
It bore me far away
Until I watched the morning light
steal over Claraghatlea
Mount Leader fair lay slumbering there
a softly side the breeze
And o’er the Lawn
the golden dawn
broke gently through the trees
Cloghoula you were fair to view
Kilmeedy’s fields were green
and purple hewed
old Mushera stood
The mountains fairest queen
How calm and still
lay Tullig’s hill
‘neath heaven’s golden dome
God bless the sight I saw last night
My own dear Millstreet home
Far out across the rolling foam
In fancy I did roam
And heard again
the plain refrain
of songbirds in the grove
I saw the dark rise o’er Drishane
and through the crumbling Boeing
While in between Blackwater’s stream
flowed by my Millstreet home
My Eileen of the Golden Hair
Once more I did her see
She was the gentle flower and fair
who gave her love to me
I leaned her on the hillside fair
Beside her cottage door
with heart raised up in silent prayer
for one who’d come no more
No more I’ll watch the rising moon
above old Claraghatlea
or hear the Angeles bell at noon
or Dooneen far away
But ’till my days on earth are o’er
and I shall cease to roam
I’ll ever love thee more and more
my own dear Millstreet home.
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Eileen Sheehan: Born on February 23, 1933, Eileen went to school in the local national school and then to Moyderwell Secondary in Tralee. However, because her mother died at a young age Eileen stayed at home in Abbeydorney with her father, who was the local tailor.
Eileen loved to attend the local dances and carnivals with her friends and, as she grew up, the Abbeydorney Drama Group became a very big part of her life, regularly travelling far and wide to perform with her fellow amateur actors.
As well as acting, Eileen had a huge passion for singing and in the mid
1960’s she recorded some of her favourite songs on LP. The album was
re-released on CD in 2011, which gave Eileen a new lease of life. Another proud moment for Eileen came in 1962 when she he was runner-up in the national Queen of the Ballad competition… read the full article
Known as Kerry’s Queen of Ballads, Eileen was a well known face on the music scene of the 60’s, and not only performed in Kerry but throughout the country. She passed away in 2015, at the age of 82. [2]
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Eileen was interviewed on Radio Kerry in 2012. Listen to it here:
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Listen to another 18 songs sung by Eileen Sheehan HERE.
