James Henry Lyrics

My name it's James Henry and I'm pushing eighty

I've grown very old and my time isn't long

I come from a place near the Annalong River

Up on the Carrick in the Mountains of Mourne

Now they're bringing me down to live in the town

They say I'm not able to live on my own

So I've turned my back and I've said my goodbyes

And I've walked the long acre for the very last time

I first met my wife in the Old Town at Harpers

Her eyes shone like diamonds, the flower of them all

Where fiddlers played, what music they made

On that August night she stole my heart away

On the lee side of Binnian looking down to the sea

The years they flew past us, right happy were we

We'd reach up and touch the stars on a clear night

And watch the moon dance on the ocean

I'd love to go walking on the mist-covered mountain

And rest for a while there, beside the Blue Lough

And lie in the heather and hear the birds singing

Watch the kestrel and the curlew and the raven in flight

My wife she is gone now and I'm all alone

I live in this place that's a house, not a home

And I miss my old neighbours now I live among strangers

Where you can't see the fields for the concrete

My children they're scattered like seeds on the four winds

They roam this world over, their fortunes to find

Good luck to their search, may they always remember

Their home on the mountain that they've left behind

Now the land's been reclaimed and the wilderness tamed

And nothing but faded old memories remain

So I sit at the Head Road with my back to a wall

Looking down to the Longstone, I try to recall

My name it's James Henry and I'm pushing eighty

I've grown very old and my time isn't long

I come from a place near the Annalong River

Up on the Carrick, in the Mountains of Mourne