Thom Moore lyrics and inspirations Do Carlow Boys come home?

DO CARLOW BOYS COME HOME?

He ran away, the boundless world

so much to blame: there came a day

when nothing home could make him stay.

He left behind the steady girl

from Palatine, who brings to mind

the Barrow track in summertime.

In this bold world young folk climb:

they laugh at what's behind.

Goodbye Carlow, there they go:

the boys and girls who leave the fold.

All roads lead to Rome, they say:

do Carlow boys come home?

He's on his own: Italian scene

with Carlow-grown boy, young and keen

on wine and song and everything.

How strange to find a hill in Rome

called Palatine, whose name reminds

Killeshin views in Carlow times.

Make those brand-new bonds that do

for boys and girls beyond.

Back in Carlow's far green land,

a steady girl might understand.

All roads lead to Rome, they say:

do Carlow boys come home?

The sun pours down: the light alone

fills up your eyes. A challenge posed:

the sights and sounds are not your own.

Choose your ground: the Barrow in

a winter coat of red-toned brown,

or flood-of-sun Italian town?

But most of all, when counting comes,

your heart's not made of stone:

Ciao, San Pietro, goodbye Rome:

the boy from Carlow's going home.

All roads lead to Rome, they say:

do Carlow boys come home?

words and music © 2005 Thom Moore and Peadar Murray In 2004 or thereabouts some Carlovians were struck by the dearth of songs about their native county (aside from Follow Me Up To ...) and resolved to remedy this deficit by advertising a large sum of money to be won in a contest for a song that would bring Carlow to the general mind. Interested pecuniarily as much as artistically, I enlisted the help of a old friend from that county, Peadar Murray, and together we came up with something that we felt would fill the bill. When we got a letter informing us that our entry had not, in fact, made the final twelve that would compete in public for the grand prize, we were a bit nonplussed, since as musicians and songwriters of some experience it seemed obvious to us that it was unlikely that there would be as many as twelve superior songs to ours in the one contest. Because of the time and energy we had invested in the project, and the simple fact that we're fond of the song, we decided to send a copy of the demo recording to RTE1’s Ronan Collins, with a request that he give an ear to the other entries when they were exposed and judge himself whether they were more worthy than ours. Ronan, god bless him, didn't wait for the contest to have its final, since he thought the song was worthy of being heard on his programme, at the very least. The response was immediate and heartening: people began ringing in to request it and to ask where they could get a copy of it. As Ronan kept pointing out, though, it's an "unreleased" recording, available nowhere except as home-made copies from Peadar or me. A footnote would be that, because of Ronan Collins’s frequent airing of the demo, most people in Carlow think that this song actually won the contest. Another footnote to this sad tale was the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, which led to a number of people from Carlow finding their way to Rome for his obsequies. Presumably they all made their way home. Oh, and a few years ago a very nice lady – the equine-veterinarian-extraordinaire Meta Osborne, whose mother is from Carlow – had just returned from Italy with her mother and sister and was driving home when she first heard this song. She thought it was a wonderful coincidence.