Clare County Library: Songs of Clare - His Beard Grows Into His Eyes sung by Pat MacNamara

His Beard Grows into His Eyes Pat MacNamara Kilshanny, near Ennistymon Recorded August 1974 Carroll Mackenzie Collection
	I am an airy young fellow that now has a comical life, My mind it can never be easy until I am tied to a wife, My parents they are continually at me, for they are the devils to scold, For seldom I’m into my supper until their soft lumpers are cold. So let us sit round and be merry, it is but one night of our life, A man should feel proud and happy that knows he will get a good wife. But a young man after he’s married, he’ll sing you one verse of his joys, ‘Cause his clothes are all battered and broken, his beard has grown into his eyes.

"Also recorded as 'Airy Young Fellow' this is part of one of the many songs of young men seeking wives before they grow too old. One of the best known of these is the North East England/Scots song ‘Buy Broom Besoms’ (Roud 1623) which is a plea for a wife, accompanied by the street cry of a besom (broom) seller: I must have a wife, whoever she may be, If she is a woman, that’s enough for me, Buy broom besoms, who will by them new, Fine heather ringers, better never grew." Jim Carroll
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