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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
Hush now, don't you cry,
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
It's an Irish lullaby.
Over in Killarney, many years ago,
My mother sang this song to me,
In tones so sweet and low.
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good old Irish way,
And I'd give the world if I could hear her
Sing that song this day.
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
Hush now, don't you cry,
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
It's an Irish lullaby.
Oft in dreams I wander to that cot again,
I feel her arms a-huggin' me,
As when she held me then,
And I hear her voice a-humming to me,
As in days of yore,
When she would rock me fast asleep,
Outside the cabin door.
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
Hush now, don't you cry,
Toora, loora, loora,
Toora, loora, li,
Toora, loora, loora,
It's an Irish lullaby.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)" was written by James Royce Shannon and published in 1913, first performed in the musical Shameen Dhu. The song became one of the most widely recognised Irish-American songs of the twentieth century, particularly after Bing Crosby recorded it for the 1944 film Going My Way, a performance that helped cement the song's place in popular culture.
The song draws on a deep well of Irish emigrant feeling: the narrator recalls the sound of a mother singing this lullaby in Killarney long ago, and now in a later life can hear her only in dreams. The tenderness of the image — a mother rocking a child to sleep outside a cabin door — is rendered all the more poignant by the distance of time and place.
The "Toora loora" refrain is a piece of Irish vocal tradition, a meaningless but deeply comforting sound, warm and lilting. This folk arrangement gives the song a quiet intimacy that suits the memory it conjures: not a grand performance, but something heard softly, at close quarters, a long time ago.
