Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Tell me the legends of long ago
When the kings and queens
Would dance in the realm of the Black Rose
Play me the melodies I want to know
So I can teach my children, oh

Pray tell me the story of young Cuchulainn
How his eyes were dark his expression sullen
And how he'd fight and always won
And how they cried when he was fallen

Oh, tell me the story of the queen of this land
And how her sons died at her own hand
And how fools obey commands
Oh, tell me the legends of long ago

Where the mountains of Mourne
Come down to the sea
Roisin Dubh come back to me?
Roisin Dubh come back to me?

Oh Shenandoah, I hear you calling
Far away you rolling river
Roll down the mountain side
On down on, down go lassie go

Oh, tell me the legends of long ago
When the kings and queens
Would dance in the realms of the black rose
Play me the melodies so I might know
So I can tell my children, oh

My Roisin Dubh is my one and only true love
It was a joy that Joyce brought to me
While William Butler waits
And Oscar, he's going wild

Ah sure, Brendan where have you been?
Looking for a girl with green eyes
My dark Rosaleen is my only colleen
That Georgie knows best

But Van is the man
Starvation once again
Drinking whiskey in the jar
Synge's playboy of the Western world

As Shaw Sean I was born and reared there
Where the mountains of Mourne
Come down to the sea
Is such a long, long way from Tipperary.


Written by: Philip Parris Lynott, Gary Moore, Scott Gorham and Brian Downey
Album: Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)
A Rock Legend
Released: 1979