O valleys beautiful I see as through this isle I roam,
And valleys beautiful may be afar beyond the foam;
But still the fairest, dearest is a valley in Tyrone –
The peaceful, graceful Valley of the Telephone.
There is a look of homeliness and kindness and charm
About this little valley’s every field and every farm;
There’s something that is friendly in each sod and stick and stone
In the make-up of the Valley of the Telephone.
The telephone has given it the scientific touch,
Albeit not interfering with its native beauty much.
O, the country seat of loveliness is hidden in Tyrone
In the peaceful, graceful Valley of the Telephone.
As pleasant as the smile that lights a dreaming infants face,
This valley is when sunbeams come to aggrandize its grace;
And the stream that glides on silver feet o’er pebble, sand and stone
Croons softly to the Valley of the Telephone.
The wee brown feathered angels that inhabit bush and tree,
Sing to the harping of sweet winds until it seems to me
That a bit of heaven has fallen in the middle of Tyrone
The peaceful, graceful Valley of the Telephone.
No wonder that Tyrconnell’s peaks, Tyrone’s and Derry’s too,
Peep o’er each others shoulders for an unobstructed view
Of the fairest of the valleys of our beautiful Tyrone
The peaceful, graceful Valley of the Telephone
MICHAEL MULLIN, ‘The Bard of Foremass’,
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross, Co. Tyrone.
4th verse 2nd line – aggrandize – make greater in size, power or rank