THE BALLAD OF MAD SWEENEY

Mad Sweeney awoke on the battlefield
and arose from the night and the mud
with his skin and his limbs and his eyes intact
and a body still filled with blood
the Battle of Mag Roth yet went on
a half fortnight of dawns ablaze
but madness fed on King Sweeney's head
to prowl the endless days

it's said he heard the boundary bell
that warned of Saint Ronan's take
he ran out bare-skinned from his old stone house
and threw his Psalter in the lake
and speared a monk of Saint Ronan's men
who carried the Holy Word
so Ronan laid on him a terrible fate
to roam the world just like a bird

oh Saint Ronan pardon me
save me from this misery
to wander naked on the earth
as it goes round and round and round
one hundred years from death to birth
from the curse you layeth down

from tree to tree condemned to live
the life of a feathered thing
all he had left was the promise of death
and the song that Saint Ronan did sing:
"fly through the air like the spear
to end the world you hold most dear
like the death of the holy one you slayed
this will be the price you paid"

oh Saint Ronan pardon me
save me from this misery
to wander naked on the earth
as it goes round and round and round
one hundred years from death to birth
from the curse you layeth down

Mad Sweeney met his just reward
confused and falling on the sword
and Ireland is still as green
as it was medieval dreamed
the legends turn around a heart
that still beat on as from the start
and even when the heart is broke
God Himself laughs at the joke

oh Saint Ronan pardon me
save me from this misery
to wander naked on the earth
as it goes round and round and round
one hundred years from death to birth
from the curse you layeth down

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