Mary Burke, Willie
& The Boys

e drove to Carrick-On-Shannon nearly every day that we were in Co. Leitrim. We were hoping to see our friend Mary Burke so we stopped into Cryan's Pub and Riverside Grill Restaurant to see her. We had a wonderful visit with Mary and took some photos with her in the restaurant. She told us that she had been working there for fifteen years and that the pub was expanding into the restaurant area. They had constructed an addition to the back side of the building and the restaurant move was slated for the following week. It will be interesting to see the new place when we go back again.

We decided to go into the pub to see if Liam Cryan was there but he wasn't at the time. We sat down at the bar and I ordered a chicken sandwich with tea, while Terry enjoyed a pint of Guinness. There were three men sitting at the bar partaking in a pint or two. They were very funny and I was in stitches.

The man sitting closest to us said that his name was William Cryan and he owned the pub. I told him that I didn't believe him because I know who Liam Cryan is. He pulled out some identification and his name was William Cryan but later Mary said that he was no relation to the owners. The man sitting near the stained glass window was Mr. MacDermott and the younger one was Mark Caul.

Mr. MacDermott started singing a tune called Now I'm Easy, and Willie was laughingly chiding him about the words to the song and that he wasn't a good singer. Well, I got out my camera and took a short film of them.

This is the song they were singing:

Now I'm Easy
By Eric Bogle

For nearly sixty years I've been a cocky
Of droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty
This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

I married a fine girl when I was twenty
But she died in giving birth when she was thirty
No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black gin
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

She left me with two sons and a daughter
And a bone-dry farm whose soil cried out for water
So my care was rough and ready but they grew up fine and steady
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

My daughter married young and went her own way
My sons lie buried by the Burma Railway
So on this land I've made my own I've carried on alone
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

City folks these days despise the cocky
Saying, with subsidies and all we've had it easy
There's no drought or starving stock on a sewered suburban block
But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

 

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