Grace - An Irish Love Song (Cover) by Seth Staton Watkins
Happy Valentine's Day! I know I've done this one before but I wanted to sing this song today and I thought it deserved a remaster.
This beautiful Irish ballad was written in 1985 by Seán and Frank O'Meara. It was written about Grace Gifford, who married her fiancé, rebel leader Joseph Mary Plunkett, in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol (featured as the backdrop of the video). Only seven hours after their wedding ceremony at the gaol's austere chapel, Plunkett was executed by firing squad for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. The best known version of "Grace" was recorded by Irish musician Jim McCann who was a member of the Irish folk group The Dubliners for a few years in the 1970's. My version is influenced heavily by the High Kings rendition.
Lyrics:
As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Gaol
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we've failed?
From our school days they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me
Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
Now I know it's hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bare for these brave men, the love for my dear land
But when Padraic called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go
Oh, Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I'll place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
Now as the dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too
On this May morn as I walk out, my thoughts will be of you
And I'll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I loved so much that I could see his blood upon the rose
Oh, Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I'll place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye