Sinéad O’Connor

Released: October 8, 2002

Songwriter: Traditional Traditional Irish Folk

Your hills and dales and flowery vales
That lie near the Moorlough Shore
Your vines that blow by borden's grove
Will I ever see you more

Where the primrose blows
And the violet grows
Where the trout and salmon play

With the line and hook, delight I took
To spend my youthful days
Last night I went to see my love
And to hear what she might say

To see if she'd take pity on me
Lest I might go away
She said, "I love that Irish lad
And he was my only joy
And ever since I saw his face
I've loved that soldier boy."

Perhaps your soldier lad is lost
Sailing over the sea of Maine
Or perhaps he is gone with some other lover
You may never see him again
Well if my Irish lad is lost
He's the one I do adore
And seven years I will wait for him
By the banks of the Moorlough Shore

Farewell to Sinclaire's castle grand
Farewell to the foggy hill
Where the linen waves like bleach-ed silk
And the banching stream runs still
Near there I spent my youthful days
But alas they are not now mine
For cruelty has banished me
Far away from the Moorlough Shore

Sinéad O'Connor (who goes by Shuhada' Sadaqat in her private life) is an Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 80s with her album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares to You” in 1990.

O'Connor was discovered in 1985 when Nigel Grainge of Ensign Records saw her band Ton Ton Macoute perform. Although he was not fond of the band’s music, he was impressed by O'Connor’s ‘amazing voice’. Grainge had O'Connor record four songs with Karl Wallinger (World Party) and signed her to his label. O'Connor’s first single was the song “Heroine” which she co-wrote with U2’s guitarist The Edge for the film Captive.

Her debut album The Lion and the Cobra was a sensation when it was released in 1987, reaching gold record status and earning a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. O'Connor’s debut single “Troy” charted in The Netherlands and Belgium, and “Mandinka”, released in late 1987, cracked the top 20 in the UK and top 30 in three other European countries, helping her album chart well in Europe. Spin Magazine described the album as a “remarkable, still-spine-tingling first record”.

more tracks from the album

Sean-Nós Nua

From the album

Sean-Nós Nua (2002)

Sinéad O’Connor popular songs

The Moorlough ShoreSinéad O’Connor

Sinéad O’Connor

Sean-Nós Nua