One of the primary functions of this website is to stir fond memories of childhood.
What better way than to reflect on the words of that perennial favourite ballad “The Old House” ?
It brings back to memory the happy days of yore
Gone are the old folk, the house stands deserted
No light at the window, no welcome at the door.
Here’s where the children play games on the heather
Here’s where they sailed their wee boats on the burn
Where are they now – some are dead – some have wandered
No more to their homes will these children return.
Lonely the house now and lonely the moorland
The children are scattered, the old folks are gone
Why stand I here like a ghost and my shadow?
It’s time I was moving – it’s time I passed on.
…
Try this John McCormack versionWay in the back of my brain I seem to recollect a tale that The Count once appeared at Newry Town Hall and, being told to close with the National Anthem (and, perhaps dazed from too much touring and not knowing precisely where he was) he struck up the first line of “God save the Queen.”
He was, I was told, chased and driven out of town and up the Dublin Road under a shower of pennies.
Whatever the truth of that tale, I know Van Morrison, fronting THEM got similar treatment from another Town Hall audience some two decades later.