Irish traditional song lyrics — collected by Beer Belly Band.
There’s a moment of your story that has always haunted me
When you set out in yon open boat to help the poor man flee
Was Charlie Stuart’s future Already plain to see did you know he’d be a waster on his days
If you did, I’d give the world to find a single tear you cried
Chorus:
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas you showed us one and all
The courage you could call from the tears that would not fall from your eyes
And after thirty years after all that you’d been through
Was the though of Bonny Charlie just a memory to rue
As you watched your husband putting on his coat of scarlet hue
To go and fight for German Geordie’s crown
But you never tried to hide behind the dreams of days gone by
Chorus:
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas you showed us one and all
The courage you could call from the tears that would not fall from your eyes
And there’s times I think I see you when I find that kind of face
When a woman’s independence has kept a woman’s grace
Where confidence and pride refuse to know their place
Or hide behind the easy tricks of beauty
For to me your lights are like the chimes across the stormy skies
Chorus:
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas you showed us one and all
The courage you could call from the tears that would not fall from your eyes
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas you showed us one and all
The courage you could call from the tears that would not fall from your eyes
NOTES: Brian’s intro to the song was: “200 years ago there was a woman named Flora McDonald. Very very famous in Scotland, she saved Bonnie Prince Charlie after the civil war of 1745. For that she is a real hero in Scotland. With no reason, because Bonnie Prince Charlie was a complete idiot. Something like Margaret Thatcher’s son for example. Maybe worse. The song is a hymn to women’s power.” This is a kind of modern Jacobite song. The Cuillins are a mountain range on the Scottish Isle of Skye, where Charlie Stuart fled to by boat after the battle of Culloden. This trip and Flora McDonald are commemorated in the famous “Skye Boat Song”. In her later life, after having spent several years in prison for helping Charlie flee, Flora emigrated with her husband to South Carolina. In 1776, her husband fought for the English forces. After the American victory, she returned to her native Skye and died there.