Johnny Cash - 40 shades of green
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Johnny Cash was so impressed by the Emerald Isle in 1961 that he
penned a whole album in celebration of Ireland.
The most enduring of Cash's Irish songs is "Forty Shades of Green",
including the confession that "most of all I miss a girl in
Tipperary town, and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown".
Mention of Dingle, Donaghadee, the Shannon, Skibbereen, Cork and Larne, make this a very all-Irish song, and a
celebration of the good old times when "the farmers drain the bogs
and spade the turf".
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Liricí as Gaeilge le Diarmaid ó Tuama 1. Ar thaisteal dom im’ chuimní 
chuig oileáinín mo chroíó naomhóga an Daingin go tránna Donaghdee, Is fada uaim an tSionainn agus muintir Sciobairín, Na móintigh is na móinéir go haoibhinn is go caoin. |
Lyrics and music by Johnny Cash 1. I close my eyes and picture The emerald of the sea From the fishing boats at Dingle To the shores of Donaghadea I miss the River Shannon, 
The folks at SkibbereenThe moorlands and the meadows And the forty shades of green |
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2. Is fada uaim mo chailín breá I dTiobraid árann Theas, Is faide fós a bhraithim uaim a béilín tana tais; Ba bhreá liom seal a chaitheamh ann go bhfeicfinn mar a bhí Na móintigh is na móinéir go haoibhinn is go caoin. |
2. But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town And most of all I miss her lips As soft as eiderdown [1] I long again to see and do The things we've done and seen Where the breeze is sweet as Shalamar [2] And there's forty shades of green. |
3. Ba bhreá liom seal a chaitheamh ann
cois trá i mBail’ áth’ Clí’S go bhfeicfinn baint na móna is an choirce aibí bhuí, Go bhfeicfinn mná ag diasrú dos na tithe beag’ ceann tuí – Do shiúlfainn cúigíbh éireann go haoibhinn is go caoin. |
3. I wish that I could spend an hour at Dublin´s churning surf. I long to watch the farmers drain the bogs and spade the turf to see again the thatching of the straw the women clean. I´d walk from Cork to Larne [3] to see those Forty Shades of Green. |
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4. Is fada uaim mo chailín breá I dTiobraid árann Theas, Is faide fós a bhraithim uaim a béilín tana tais; Ba bhreá liom seal a chaitheamh ann go bhfeicfinn mar a bhí Na móintigh is na móinéir go haoibhinn is go caoin. |
4. But most of all I miss a girl
in Tipperary townAnd most of all I miss her lips As soft as eiderdown. I long again to see and do The things we've done and seen Where the breeze is sweet as Shalamar And there's forty shades of green. |
Never mind that a lot of these farmers might have told Cash to be
on his way, preferring some modern comforts themselves. And so,
Johnny Cash was responsible for creating the idea of Ireland being "
forty shades of green".
There is also an Irish language version above by Diarmaid ó Tuama who
while taking a few liberties is quite close to the original both
in the language, spirit, and in the rhyme.
Cash's original was added on by Ireland's seminal rock
group "Boomtown Rats", with singer Bob Geldof also mentioning
"sixty shades of red" in reference to the "Troubles".
[1] Eiderdown comes from a large migratory Eider Duck,
is exceptionally soft and has insulating properties
superior to any other down. [Pronounced: eye der down}
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Filleadh go indeacs
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