Let Erin remember the days of old,

Ere her faithless sons betray'd her;

When Malachi wore the collar of gold,

Which he won from her proud invader,

When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd,

Led the Red-branch Knights to danger;--

Ere the emerald gem of the western world

Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays,

When the clear cold eve's declining,

He sees the round towers of other days

In the wave beneath him shining;

Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;

Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time

For the long faded glories they cover.

~~Thomas Moore