Things Have Changed In Ballydaly

Things have changed in Ballydaly 'tis a changed place he did say
And you well might feel like a stranger where you once were well known today
Many of the old departed amongst the parish dead they lay
And those that you grew up with now showing their years in gray.

Things have changed in Ballydaly though the old fields look the same
That you knew before you went south the birds by their songs one could name
Their descendants sing the same songs that you heard years ago
And the river from the Kippagh Hill downland through the rushes flow.

Things have changed in Ballydaly many there now you would not know
There you knew and were known by many just a few decades ago
But some you knew have emigrated and some have gone the way of time
And those that you grew up with many years beyond their prime.

Things have changed in Ballydaly at least some things anyway
Though the hawthorns as ever wear their white flowers in the lovely month of May
And in the Spring and Summer the skylark upwards fly
To carol o'er the bracken hillside in the early morning sky.