Johnny Cash famously wrote Forty Shades of Green in 1959 on a trip to Ireland. While there are many reasons to come to Ireland on vacation in 2010, even the great Johnny Cash was captivated by the green beauty of the emerald Isle over 50 years ago.
I close my eyes and picture the emerald of the sea
from the fishin boats at Dingle to the shores at Donaghdee
I miss the River Shannon and the folks at Skibbereen
the moorlands and meadows and their Forty Shades of Green
But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town
and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown
I long again to see and do the things we've done and seen
where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there's Forty Shades of Green
I wish that I could spend an hour at Dublin´s churning suft
I long to watch the farmers drain the bogs and spade the turf
to see again the thatching of the straw the women clean
I´d walk from Cork to Larne to see those Forty Shades of Green
But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town
and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown
I long again to see and do the things we´ve done and seen
where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there´s Forty Shades of Green