The Irish Descendants

Out From St Leonards

The Irish Descendants


Tom: D

       D              G             D
In the mid-1960s, the news rang out clear,
          G             D              Em         A 
Pack your bags and your nets, you must get out of here;
          D                            G              D
Take your picks and your shovels, your rakes and your hoes,
    G          D             Em          A
The government says you must pack up and go.
 
[Verse 2]
          D                          G            D
Well, the news it soon spread to the harbours and coves,
         G                D          Em            A
That the young crowd were leaving in hordes and in droves;
       D                G            D
For to go to Toronto to follow their goals,
      G        D         Em          A
Or to go to Placentia to live on the dole.

[Chorus]
         D                         G           D
And it's out from St Leonard's and out from Toslow,
       G                D              Em        A
They'd steam 'cross the bay with their houses in tow;
           D                         G             D
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stern,
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.
 
[Verse 3]
     D                   G                   D
Now, Skipper Jim Pittman he said he wouldn't go,
              G          D          Em        A
While there's nets to be mended and hay to be mowed;
        D                   G          D
He said he'd never work, no matter the pay,
        G            D           Em           A
In some hockey stick factory out Stephenville way.

[Chorus]
         D                         G           D
And it's out from St Leonard's and out from Toslow,
       G                D              Em        A
They'd steam 'cross the bay with their houses in tow;
           D                         G             D
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stern,
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.

[Verse 4]
        D                    G               D
Now, on all politicians they cursed and they swore,
     G            D            Em           A
They rather would fight off in some distant war;
         D                         G              D
For when they ceased to ramble and they ceased to roam,
       G         D         Em                A
They'd like to return to a place they called home.

[Chorus]    
         D                         G           D
And it's out from St Leonard's and out from Toslow,
       G                D              Em        A
They'd steam 'cross the bay with their houses in tow;
           D                         G             D
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stern,
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.
 
[Verse 5]
        D                        G               D
Now the islands and harbours and coves are ghost towns,     
    G          D        Em          A
You need a longliner to harvest the ground;
      D                    G           D
And a big oil refinery now stands as a shrine,
       G             D          Em         A
To the daughters and sons who remember the time.

[Chorus]
         D                         G           D
And it's out from St Leonard's and out from Toslow,
       G                D              Em        A
They'd steam 'cross the bay with their houses in tow;
           D                         G             D
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stern,
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.

[Chorus]
         D                         G           D
And it's out from St Leonard's and out from Toslow,
       G                D              Em        A
They'd steam 'cross the bay with their houses in tow;
           D                         G             D
With their beds in the bow and their stoves in the stern,
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.

[Outro]
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.
       G              D              G    D
Bound away with their sons and their daughters.