The wee birds were lining the bleak autumn branches Preparing to fly to a far, sunny shore When the Tinkers made camp at a bend in the river Coming back from the horse fair in Ballinasloe Now the harvest being over, the farmer came walking All along the Foyle River that borders his land And it was there he first saw her 'twixt firelight and water The Tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Anne Next morning he rose from a night without resting He went straight tae her father and he made his case known And in a pub in Listowel they worked out a bargain For the Tinker, a pony; for the daughter, a home Where the trees cast their shadows along the Foyle River The Tinker and the farmer inspected the land And the white, gallant wild pony was the price they agreed on For the Tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Anne The wedding soon over, the Tinkers departed And they were eager tae travel on south down the road But the crunch of the iron-shod wheels upon gravel Was as bitter to her as the way she'd been sold But she tried hard to please him, she did all his bidding She slept in his bed and she worked on his land But the walls of that cabin pressed tighter and tighter On the Tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Anne For as white as the hands of the priest or the hangman The snow spread its blanket the next Christmas 'round And the Tinkerman's daughter slipped out from his bedside Turned her back on the land and her face to the town And it's said someone saw her at dusk that same evening She was making her way out o'er Laoiracrumpan Aye, and that was the last time the settlefolk saw her The Tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Anne Where the North Kerry hills cut the Foyle near Listowel At a farm on its banks lives a bitter old man And he swears by the shotgun he keeps at his bedside That he'll kill any Tinker that camps on his land Yet whenever he hears iron-shod wheels crunch on gravel Or a horse in the shafts of a bright caravan Then his day's work's tormented and his night's sleep's demented By the Tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Anne |