Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear

Subject: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: GUEST,Dave in Nfld
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 01:08 PM

I am looking for the song "Goodbye Johnny Dear" It was recorded by the SEAN O'Neal Band. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: bill\sables
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 02:25 PM

Would that be
Goodbye Johnny dear when you're (something something)
Don't forget your dear old mother (something)
Send a letter every day (something)
And don't forget whe're ere you go that you're an Irishman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: Quincy
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 06:09 PM

This is a the first verse of the song according to Barnbrack (as I hear them!)

It's twenty years ago today, I grasped my mother's hand
She kissed and blessed her only son, going to a foreign land.
She clasped me to her loving breast, she knew I had to go.
And I could hear her gentle voice, the words were sweet and low.

O goodbye Johnny dear, and when you're far away,
Don't forget your dear old mother, far across the say (sea)
Write a letter now and then and do the best you can
And don't forget where'er you roam, that you're an Irish man.


Somebody's bound to come up with the rest of the lyrics.
best wishes, Yvonne

Subject: Lyr Add: GOODBYE JOHNNY DEAR (Johnny Patterson)
From: Brakn
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 09:57 AM

Just twenty years ago today
I grasped my mother's hand
She kissed and blessed her only son
Going to a foreign land
The neighbours took me from her breast
And told her I must go
Yet I could hear my mother's voice
Though her words were faint and low

Chorus
O goodbye Johnny dear, and when you're far away,
Don't forget your dear old mother, far across the say (sea)
Write a letter now and then and send her all you can
And don't forget where e'er you roam, that you're an Irish man.

We sailed away from Queenstown,
That is the Cove of Cork
A very pleasant voyage we had
And soon were in New York
I had plenty of friends to meet me there
And work I got next day
But with all the hospitality
I could hear my mother say

One day a letter came to me
From far across the sea
It came from dear old Ireland
It was addressed to me
And after I had opened it
Sure this is what I read
My dear old John, I'm sorry to say
That your poor old mother's dead

Written by Johnny Patterson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: GUEST,DONEGAL JOE BGS 3RD COUSIN
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 01:05 PM

Think the last verse goes.....


One day a letter came for me. It came from Ireland.
The postmark showed it came from home. 'Twas not my mother's hand.
'Twas Father Dan who wrote to tell me she had passed away,
Though up in heaven I still could hear my mother's sweet voice say—

(Chorus) Goodbye, Johnny dear, etc.


Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 01:02 AM

A recording by the McNulty Family from 1939, which you can hear at the Internet Archive, has this last verse, offering a somewhat happier ending than the versions posted above:

Well, now I'm rich in worldly goods, but in the mind of me,
A longing and a yearning grows for friends across the sea;
So back I'll go to Ireland, that isle so green and fair,
But sure I'll miss my mother's voice and the words she told me there: CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 05:51 AM

I first heard this played on the box & sung by a man in a pub in Killarney in 1964. He matched it with a similar tear-jerker @Eileen Alannah' and a waltz version of the 'Rocks of Bawn'- I've sung it to waltz time ever since.
It was the real thing, sentimental or not & in a different class to most of what now passes for folk music....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Goodbye Johnny Dear
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 09:52 AM

https://www.itma.ie/inishowen/song/goodbye_johnny_kathleen_mcgonigle