The Old Bog Road-Lyrics+Chords-Johnny McEvoy

The Old Bog Road Lyrics And Guitar Chords Written by Teresa Brayton

There are many roads in Ireland called The Old Bog Road

but the song is about the one in County Kildare near Kilcock.

President Eamon De Valera in 1959 unvaled a memorial to Teresa Brayton in Cloncurry Cemetery Kilcock Co. Kildare, it is an 8 foot Celtic Cross and the inscription includes a line from her most famous expression, 'The Old Bog Road'

Her poems and stories were printed in every newspaper in Ireland at the time.

Teresa wa born in Kilbrook, County, Kildare, in 1968 and also died there in 1943 having returned from New York,

Her father was Hugh Boylan and her republican family were associated with the rising of 1798, she knew most of the leaders of the 1916 rising and around her neck she wore a chain, a piece of the flagstaff which flew the flag of the Irish Republic from the G.P.O. in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916, the chain was given to her by Countess Markievicz.The air of the song is an original air by Madeline O'Farrelly. Thanks to Johnny McEvoy for keeping the song alive.

My[D] feet are here on Broadway,this blessed harvest[A] morn,

But[G] o the ache thats[D] in them for the[A] place where I wa[D] born,

My[D] weary hands are blistered,from working cold and[A] heath,

But[G] o to swing the[D] scythe again,in a[A] field of Irish[D] wheat,

Had[G] I the chance to wander back or own a King's[A] abode,

I'd[D] sooner see the[G] hawthorn tree,by the[A] old bog[D] road.

[2]

My mother died last springtime,when Ireland's field's were gree,

The neighbours said her waking was the finest ever seen,

There were snowdrops and primroses,piled high beside her bed,

And Ferns Church was crouded,when the funeral mass was said,

But here was I on Broadway,just building bricks by load,

When they carried out her coffin down the Old Bog Road.

[3]

Now life is a weary puzzle,as finding out by man,

I take the day for what it's worth,and do the best I can,

Since no one cares a rush for me what need for me to moan,

I go my way and draw my pay and smoke my pipe alone,

Each human heart must know it's grief,though bitter be the load,

So God be with you Ireland,and the3 Old Bog Road.

The Old Bog Road Extra Verses.

These verses are seldom sang, they were written as the second and forth verses.

When I was young and restless, my mind was ill at ease, Through dreaming of America, and gold beyond the seas, 0 sorrow take their money, 'tis hard to get that same,
And what's the world to any man, where no one speaks his name. I've had my day and here I am, with building bricks for load, A long three thousand miles away, from the Old Bog Road.

There was a decent girl at home, who used to walk with me, Her eyes were soft and sorrowful, like sunbeams on the sea, Her name was Mary Dwyer; but that was long ago,
And the ways of God are wiser, than the things a man may know. She died the year I left her, with building bricks for load, I'd best forget the times we met, on the Old Bog