The Sailor St. Brendan - The Wolfe Tones

Saint Brendan, he sailed o’er the western seas

With stars as his guide and with sail and with breeze

With God as his helper, his helmsman who guides

His boat is his church and his friend is the church

With saintly men 'round him, he journeyed the foam

Strange birds and strange fishes and waters unknown

For he tried to seek land that was promised to all

'Twas taught of in stories and westward it called

Saint Brendan and those who were with him who sailed

Just like the Malaysians sought out Innisfail

I’m sure you have heard of lore

Of gaels who had travelled to western shores

With a boat made of oak and the hyde of an ox

You were ah but a master to all of your flock

Through storm and through calm and in tempest and fog

The spiritual tales of your journey did log

For you bade your disciples they be not afraid

For they feared and they wondered on all that they gazed

And the seas that you voyaged, strange lands that you called

Your own native Kerry you loved above all

You saw islands of sheep and saw mountains of fire

And beasts that devoured and an island of choirs

Pillars of crystal and rivers so wide

And beaches that ran out for miles with the tide

You have eaten strange foods and you drank in strange wells

Saw fountains and demons you thought of as hell

And an island of grapes, oh, who knows where it lay?

On a sea that was clear, sailed for many a day

For Saint Brendan, you searched for some mystic terrain

With the way of the cross it would not be in vain

From the church of Ardfert to Mountain Brandon’s tall reeds

May the ruins of the abbey past glories they speak

Be it legend or fable, the stories of gaels

To many lands travelled where boats could hoist sail

From the cross of my own heart to the plains of Ukraine

One sang out your praises;

remembered your name

Your stories and travelled revered with renown

Through centuries later, wise scribes written down

And today as our ships sail with honour and grace

Be the sailor Saint Brendan the guide of our race