From These Lands They Came
A Song for the Lowlanders by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
© 2008 Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
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From these lands they came,
And they rose to fame
Across the world wide.
And man to man,
Each done what he can
To make a nation they tried
And a world they carved from nothing there,
From a landscape hard and fair,
And today the USA
Owes of its success to the Lowlanders a share.
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There was Dutch and English, and there were Germans too,
Catholic and Protestant, Mormon and Jew.
And the stars and stripes that today flies
On the backs of Lowlanders was raised.
And none are surprised
When they are for their contribution praised.
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Sure wrong was done to clear the land,
As happens everywhere,
And maybe its true that there should stand
Only Indian and buffalo without a care.
But history is what it is,
And there’s nothing we can do.
And nations that never wronged another
In this world are few.
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To live their lives and worship God
As each man saw fit,
To work and raise their young
Their ambition, that was it.
To live their lives of bondage free
And help others do the same,
To make a better land than they were from
To America they came …
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