Bonny Portmore

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"Bonny Portmore" is a traditional Celtic folk song which details the centuries of Ireland's old oak forests, specifically The Great Oak of Portmore, being leveled for military and shipbuilding purposes. Loreena McKennitt performed this song on her 1991 album, The Visit, and it was subsequently used in the film Highlander III: The Final Dimension (1994). A new version of the song was recorded by Laura Creamer for the 1995 episode Homeland of Highlander: The Series. Laura Creamer's version, which has slightly different lyrics, was re-used in the the episodes Dramatic Licence (1996), Armageddon (1997) and the series' final episode Not To Be (1997). In 2000 the song was used in the film Highlander: Endgame, this time recorded by Jennifer McNeil.

[edit] Lyrics

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where shall we shelter, where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground."

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore.

[edit] Lyrics (Highlander-The series version)

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
I would cling to the memory of our love ever more

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
I would cling to the memory of our love ever more

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where will we shelter or where will we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
I would cling to the memory of our love ever more