The Stones Keep Turning
Author: Martin Power
Melody: Biddy Mulligan

The Stones Keep Turning
Author: Martin Power
Melody: Biddy Mulligan

The stones have turned in the rivers and streams and Patrick's Day now it has passed,
The tinker has loaded his pots and his pans and his donkey he's yolked to his cart;
He'll turn to the road with his family in tow in search of some work to be found
And he'll wander the country to markets and they'll pitch their old tent on the ground.

The sweep too has gathered the tools of his trade and bundled them into his pack,
His brushes, his rods, his scrapers and cloths, and he carries them all on his back.
He knows all the homes and the chimneys he'll sweep and the people all know him by name,
For his father and his grandfather swept the same pots when he was but a wain.

CHORUS
So here's to men, those travelling people of old that help keep our culture alive,
They carried our music, our songs and our tales and spread them the whole country wide.

There were labouring men who travelled the road to work on the farms of the day,
They helped milk the cows, they fixed harness and plough and worked in the fields saving hay;
They gathered in turf for the long winter nights, brought stock to be sold at the fair
And often they worked for the food that they ate and the price of a drink at the fair.

They were fiddlers and poets and singers to boot and those who a story could tell,
They brightened the lives in the homes where they played and brought news to the people as well.
Their songs told the stories of legends of old, of heroes from Ireland, long passed,
And without them our songs and music for sure would be lost in the far distant past.

Oh, these were the travelling people of old that wandered the roads far and wide,
They carried and shared our pure Gaelic ways and helped keep our culture alive.
Their ways now are gone like the druids of old and progress has stolen their trades
But we owe a great debt for the legacy left and our culture that still lives today.

CHORUS

The text, to the melody of Biddy Mulligan, is a nostalgic trip down memory lane to the people and ways of the past, and, to cultural practices now gone.