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12-string Guitar: Dear Old Donegal (Including lyrics and chords)

3,376 views · Published 13 June 2009 · 3:04 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: threelegsoman · 2009 · Music

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A request for 00JTM for this song came yesterday. I have not heard it before, but always up for a challenge I have given it a go. It took a bit of learning, especially the tongue-twisting third verse, but amazingly I managed it in one take this morning. So here it is.

Dear Old Donegal
Traditional
No capo 
C                                                  F                              C                
It seems like only yesterday I sailed from out of Cork.
    F                                                   C                         G7                                                                         
A wanderer from old Erin's isle, I landed in New York.
            C                                                        F                             C  
There wasn't a soul to greet me there, a stranger on your shore,
       F                       C                              G7                      C             
But Irish luck was with me here, and riches came galore.
                                                                    F                      C              
And now that I'm going back again to dear old Erin's isle,
       F                                   C                        G7              
My friends will meet me on the pier and greet me with a smile.
          C                                                          F                      C
Their faces, sure, I've almost forgot, I've been so long away,
              F                           C                             G7                     C   
But me mother will introduce them all and this to me will say

C                                                                                  F                              C   
Shake hands with your Uncle Mike, me boy, and here's your sister, Kate.
                 F                               C                                  G7     
And sure there's the girl you used to swing down by the garden gate.
            F                                                             C                             G7   
Shake hands with all your neighbours, and kiss the colleens all
                 F                           C                             G7           C   
You're as welcome as the flowers in May to dear old Donegal.

They'll line the roads for miles and miles they'll come from near and far.
And they'll give a party when I go home, with Irish jauntin' cars.
The spirits'll flow and we'll be gay, we'll fill your hearts with joy.
And the piper will play an Irish reel to greet the Yankee boy.
We'll dance and sing the whole night long, such fun as never was seen.
The lads'll be decked in corduroy, the colleens wearin' green.
There'll be thousands there that I never saw, I've been so long away,
But me mother will introduce them all and this to me will say:

C                                                                           F                               G7        
Meet Branigan, Fannigan, Milligan, Gilligan, Duffy, McCuffy, Malachy, Mahone, 
C                                                               F                                    G7               C      
Rafferty, Lafferty, Donnelly, Connelly, Dooley, O'Hooley, Muldowney, Malone,
                                                                                                    G
Madigan, Cadigan, Lanihan, Flanihan, Fagan, O'Hagan, O'Hoolihan, Flynn,
C                                                                                             G                     C       
Shanihan, Manihan, Fogarty, Hogarty, Kelly, O'Kelly, McGuinness, McGuinn.

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