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It's a question of evolution Why people laugh, gossip and sleep around. It's a question of evolution --------------------------------------------------------------------- 'If you fall through the mattress, I'll see you in the spring': Readers share their favourite Irish goodbyes 'If you fall through the mattress, I'll see you in the spring': Readers share their favourite Irish goodbyes --------------------------------------------------------------------- One fork in the grave - Alison Healy on food-inspired graveside tributes One fork in the grave - Alison Healy on food-inspired graveside tributes --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Lament for Limerick 6 - 7 Ditto for Kinsale and Kilcash 8 He gave what little wealth he had/To build a home for fools and mad /And shew'd with one satiric touch/No country wanted it so much 9 Swift has sailed into his rest/Where savage indignation/Can no longer lacerate his breast 10 Carolan's farewell to music 11 The minstrel boy to the war has gone 12 The pipes, the pipes are calling 13 The Last Rose of Summer 14 For Ireland's freedom/We'll fight or die 15 Emmet's speech from the dock 16 She is far from the land 17 In 1803, we sailed out to sea/Out from the sweet town of Derry 18 My body to Ireland, my heart to Rome, my soul to God 19 So fare thee well, sweet Liza dear 20 And likewise to Derry Town 21 - 22 And twice farewell to me comrade boys, who dwell on that sainted ground 23 Goodbye Mick 24 Goodbye Pat 25 Goodbye Kate and Mary 26 The anchor's weighed, the gangway's up, I'm leaving Tipperary 27 Goodbye Muirisin Durkan 28 By a lonely prison wall/I heard a young girl calling 29 Fare thee well, Enniskillen 30 Fare thee well sweet Donegal, the Rosses, and Gweedore 31 Ditto Sweet Anna Liffey, Green Valleys, and My Lovely Dinah 32 The night before Larry was stretched 33 I am stretched on your grave 34 Such is life 35 The man had killed the thing he loved/And so he had to die 36 The wallpaper and I are in a duel to the death. One of us must go. 37 They're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me 38 They lived and loved and laughed and left 39 Grace, just hold me in your arms 40 He shall not hear the bittern cry 41 I got more than one bullet I think. Tons and tons of love dearie to you and the boys and to Nell and Anna. It was a good fight anyway. 42 Yerra, they'll never shoot me in my own county 43 Observe the sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme 44 Cast a cold eye/On life, on death/Horseman pass by 45 Commemorate me with no hero-courageous tomb/Just a canal back seat for the passer-by 46 Finnegan's Wake (with the apostrophe) 47 Finnegans Wake (without) 48 The American Wake 49 A Painful Case 50 An Irish Airman Foresees his Death 51 For he comes, the human child/To the waters and the wild 52 - 54 Well known, alas, is the case of the poor German who was very fond of three and who made each aspect of his life a thing of triads. He went home one evening and drank three cups of tea with three lumps of sugar in each cup, cut his jugular with a razor three times and scrawled with a dying hand on a picture of his wife good-bye good-bye good-bye. 55 Krapp's Last Tape 56 On a quiet street, where old ghosts meet, I see her walking now 57 The reason I left Mullingar 58 I'll take you home again, Kathleen 59 And that's the cruel reason I left old Skibbereen 60 Then the ship struck a rock/Lord, what a shock 61 And I woke in California/Many miles from Spancil Hill 62 The Blasket school of Literature 63 I'm an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge 64 I have done my best to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again 65 So I waved goodbye with a wistful eye/And I left the girls of Tuam 66 Thousands are sailing 67 Many young men of twenty said goodbye 68 The Leaving Cert 69 The blessing of a poor old man be with you night and day 70 The blessing of a lonely man whose heart will soon be clay 71 - 73 Lament for Staker Wallace, Oliver Goldmsith, Brendan Behan 74 Heaney's Spring Break 75 Her father didn't like me anyway 76 Say goodbye to Madame George 77 - 80 Say goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye to Madame George 81 Now the song is nearly over/We may never find out what it means 82 Happy Christmas your arse, I thank God it's our last 83 Noli timere 84 Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite 85 Goodnight and may your God go with you 86 We get here and the skips containing the team's training gear are missing 87 The pitch is like a carpark 88 We had no goalkeepers for the five-a-side 89 Packie said they'd worked hard. Alan said they'd worked hard. I said: "Do you want a pat on the back for working hard - is that not why we're here?" I did mention that they wouldn't be too tired to play golf next day and, fair play, they dragged themselves out." 90 "You were a crap player. You're a crap manager." 91 I have done the State some service. 92 The dead man was known to the gardai 93 Slan tamaill 94 Slan go foill 95 Slan abhaile 96 Slan go deo 97 Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord 98 Don't let the door hit you on the way out 99 His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. 100 "The Irish goodbye" An Irish Diary IN THIS SECTION Arctic bound - Brian Maye on Wexford-born explorer Robert John Le Mesurier McClure March of time - Norman Freeman on the centenary of the No 1 Army Band Why people laugh, gossip and sleep around. It's a question of evolution One fork in the grave - Alison Healy on food-inspired graveside tributes Athenry Fields Forever - Frank McNally on the existentialist threat of Zombie and a possible Irish origin for Liverpool's Anfield MOST READ Budget 2024 main points As it happened: Budget 2024 brings mortgage relief and USC cuts Social welfare rates raised by EUR12 a week in budget, with one-offs for fuel and 'Christmas bonus' Man (50s) arrested in connection with 2017 disappearance of Tina Satchwell Budget 2024 calculator: How this year's budget will affect your income READ NEXT 'If you fall through the mattress, I'll see you in the spring': Readers share their favourite Irish goodbyes The Names List and Ireland's Memorial Records of the first World War LATEST STORIES Irish-Israeli citizen Kim Damti's fate is still unknown, Varadkar says John Kiely to stay on as Limerick manager for 2024 The Reckoning episode two review: How Jimmy Savile became leader of British entertainment's parade of shame and horror Some will 'fall on wrong side' of new mortgage interest relief scheme, says Minister Miriam Lord: Annual regurgitation of budget leaks overshadowed by the day's main barney (c) 2023 The Irish Times DAC (c) 2023 The Irish Times DAC Subscribe * Why Subscribe? * Subscription Bundles * Subscriber Rewards * Subscription Help Centre(Opens in new window) * Home Delivery(Opens in new window) * Gift Subscriptions Support * Contact Us * Help Centre(Opens in new window) * My Account About Us * Advertise * Contact Us * The Irish Times Trust * Careers Irish Times Products & Services * ePaper * Crosswords & puzzles * Newspaper Archive * Newsletters * Article Index(Opens in new window) * Discount Codes(Opens in new window) The Irish Times Download the app Download on the App Store Download on Google Play MyHome.ie(Opens in new window) * Top 1000 * The Gloss(Opens in new window) * Recruit Ireland(Opens in new window) * Irish Times Training(Opens in new window) --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Terms & Conditions * Privacy Policy * Cookie Information * Cookie Settings * Community Standards * Copyright