Cherish the Ladies: The Christmas Letter

THE CHRISTMAS LETTER
Music by Joanie Madden, Wood Park Publishing, BMI
From Cherish the Ladies album, "Christmas in Ireland" comes a poem written by Michael Scanlon from County Limerick in the early 1900’s that Joanie Madden uncovered in the Clare Library.
The ballad tells the sad story of a lonely mother heartbroken on Christmas day lamenting because her children were forced to emigrate to America. The legendary fiddler Junior Crehan added the first verse to adapt it to his homeland in County Clare. Joanie Madden arranged the song by composing a new melody and adding a chorus and the song features Galway native Don Stiffe singing lead vocals along with Cherish the Ladies.
DON STIFFE - LEAD VOCALS
JOANIE MADDEN - FLUTE, WHISTLES, HARMONY VOCALS
MARY COOGAN - GUITARS
MIRELLA MURRAY - ACCORDION
KATHLEEN BOYLE - PIANO, HARMONY VOCALS
NOLLAIG CASEY - FIDDLE
TREVOR HUTCHINSON - UPRIGHT BASS
JOHN MADDEN - DRUMS
Filmed and Edited by Martin O'Malley, Miltown Malbay, County Clare
LYRICS
Not far from Miltown Malbay if you travel south a small way,
To a place called Bonavilla in the pleasant County Clare.
Where there lived a widow lonely with her one daughter only,
Who stayed at home to care her while the rest were gone away.
Now this poor old woman weeping and her daughter she was sleeping,
Wearied from her toils, 'twas the eve of Christmas day.
They got letters, they got money, but their hearts were poor and lonely,
And to her sleeping daughter these words she then did say:
CHORUS
“Oh then Kate a-stór, you’re sleeping while my eyes are ever weeping,
Weeping for those little ones that’s gone so far away.
Won’t you read again that letter, somehow it makes me better,
Each time I hear the news of them that’s in Amerikay."
Oh the kitchen here was full of them and one by one the lot of them,
Sailed out across that great big sea to that land so far away.
And now each little motion on the wide and fretful ocean,
Falls heavy on this mother’s heart this blessed Christmas Day.
Tis well I do remember the bleak day in December,
When the neighbors laid your father in his narrow bed of clay.
I prayed to God to take me, my heart was well near breaking,
For Myself and all those little ones that Blessed Christmas Day.
CHORUS
But the yellow waves were shining with their creamy deep grey lining,
And they stole the children of my heart to that land so far away.
First went Dick and also Nelly, and then little blue-eyed Willie,
Oh ‘tis far ye’re from a mother’s care this Blessed Christmas Day.
Now what’s the use in talking, Seánín was hardly walking,
When I saw him climb upon the cliff and look across the bay.
My bitter tears were falling, sure I knew this day was calling,
The only treasure of my heart that Blessed Christmas Day.
CHORUS
“Oh then Kate a-stór, you’re sleeping while my eyes are ever weeping,
Weeping for those little ones that’s gone so far away.
Won’t you read again that letter, somehow it makes me better,
Each time I hear the news of them that’s in Amerikay.
Each time I hear the news of them this blessed Christmas day"
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