Town Of Tilting: Songs - History Repeats

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This song was written for the TEA Concert in 1997 - Leo Kinsella set it to music and he and Clara sang it in the concert. The words might be appropriate today as we prepare for another Come Home Year.

"History Repeats"

History repeats as the years roll away

What our ancestors did we still do today

They came from afar a new life to begin

And we do the same as they did way back then

They came from old Ireland to this new found place

Turned their backs to the green shores a new home to embrace

From the land of the shamrock to the land of the cod

They brought little with them but a great faith in God

They came from an island far over the foam

To make better lives they left family and home

On these rocky shores they began a new life

Facing out to the sea filled with peril and strife

Two centuries have passed since the first ones arrived

But our small village Tilting has always survived

In spite of the hardships that many have faced

We’ve kept the good memories, the bad ones erased

But history repeats as our young people leave

For the oil in Alberta and the old people grieve

As the young seek new lives in a land far away

What our ancestors did we still do today

But we’ll celebrate and we’ll always return

To our home on this island for which many yearn

Our ancestors stayed cause they couldn’t go home

But we’ll always come back no matter where we may roam

By Clara Burke Byrne