Grace Anderson SA1974.08.1
The Iri
sh singer Johnny Patterson (1840-1890) made this song while earning a rich living in the USA around 1880. Gracie and two friends were delighted to be able to prop themselves in front of a stone outside Dan Murphy’s Bar in Sneem for a photo during a coach tour to Ireland with Jamieson’s Coaches of Mid Yell. One result of the song’s popularity was the appearance of large stones outside ‘Dan Murphy’s’ bars in several different towns, though the real ‘Dan Murphy’s Store’ of the song was in the town of Ennis.
Roud no. 4783.
There’s a sweet garden spot in me memory;
It’s the place I was born and reared.
It’s long years ago since I left it
But return there I will if I’m spared.
My friends and companions of childhood
Would assemble each night near the store,
‘Round Dan Murphy’s shop and how often I’ve sat
On the stone that stood outside his door.
Those days in our hearts we will cherish;
Contented although we were poor;
But the songs that were sung
In the days we were young
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.
When our day’s work was over we’d meet there
In the spring and summer the same;
The boys and the girls all together
They would join in some innocent game.
Dan Murphy would bring down his fiddle
While his daughters looked after the store;
The music would ring and sweet songs they would sing
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.
Those days in our hearts we will cherish;
Contented although we were poor;
But the songs that were sung
In the days we were young
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.
Back again will my thoughts often wander
To the scenes of my childhood home;
The friends and companions I left there,
It was poverty forced me to roam.
Since then in this life I have prospered
But how oft in my heart I feel sore,
For memories will fly to the days that’s gone by
And the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.
Those days in our hearts we will cherish;
Contented although we were poor;
But the songs that were sung
In the days we were young
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.