Hush, hush, time tae be sleepin
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creepin
Dreams o peace an o freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby
Once our valleys were ringin
Tae the sounds o our children singin
But now sheep bleat till the evenin
An shielings lie empty an broken
Hush, hush, time tae be sleepin
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creepin
Dreams o peace an o freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby
We stood, wi heads bowed in prayer
While factors burned our cottages bare
The flames licked the cool mountain air
An many were dead by the mornin
Hush, hush, time tae be sleepin
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creepin
Dreams o peace an o freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby
Where was our proud highland mettle
Our men once so fierce in battle
Now stand, cowed, huddled like cattle
And wait to be shipped o’er the ocean
Hush, hush, time tae be sleepin
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creepin
Dreams o peace an o freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby
No use pleading or praying
Gone gone all hopes of staying
Hush, hush, the anchor’s a-weighing
Don’t cry in your sleep, bonnie baby
Hush, hush, time tae be sleepin
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creepin
Dreams o peace an o freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonnie baby
Video by Alistair Reese
A song written by Jim McLean to the tune of The Mist Covered Mountains.
A bitterly angry modern song by Jim McLean about the savagery and mass deportations of what is now called the Highland Clearances during the 19th century when whole tribal communities were destroyed and the people shipped by force to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. This was the Final Solution to the problem of the Gaels‘ tenacious holding on to the older native way of life and culture. People refer to the Highlands of Scotland as Europe’s last great wilderness – it is a man-made wilderness. 200 years ago it was widely populated with Scots.
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