I've always loved this song and Tommy Fleming's version is one of the finest I've ever heard. My dear Mammy came from Meenmore just outside Dungloe where she'd walk to and from school everyday as a Girl. She moved to Scotland when she was 16 to find work and did so in so many Hotels & Guest Lodges around Scotland, from Troon to St. Andrews as a Waitress and Maid before eventually settling down with a local lad, my Dad, 20 years later. I spent most of my childhood Summer Holidays in Ireland and Happily brought my Wife there in 2003 & 2008 to see the Mary from Dungloe Festival and to show Her around the place I love so much. She loved it every bit as much as me, the clean fresh air mixed with the endearing smell of peat rising up the chimneys of the idyllic whitewashed or bold coloured houses and the tang of salt in the air from the coastline where the white horses crashed along the shores. My Wife died in suddenly 2011 from Heart Failure aged 44 and my Mammy died last November (from a similarly related cause) aged 81. Even though the pain of grief is hardly bearable, I always remember the Good Times we all shared and the happy memories I have of Ireland are the strongest that I hold onto. I miss them both everyday but if Heaven is the the place of Dreams I've always imagined it to be then, for me, it'll be this blissfully peaceful town & community on the west coast of Ireland and a place I'll, some day, embrace both of my Girls in my arms once and for evermore ♥
And I wish I was in Sweet Dungloe and seated on the grass And by my side a bottle of wine and on my knee a lass. I'd call for liquor of the best and I'd pay before I would go And I'd roll my Mary in my arms in the town of Sweet Dungloe.
