Somewhere in France Dear Mother

Out in a trench, midst the Belgians and the French,
A young Irish soldier lay down.
A lull in the fight, brought his first chance to write
To his mother in Tipperary town,
"Bedad" said he "it must be short for they censor every note,"
So to cheer her poor old Irish heart heart
Shure! this is what he wrote:
 
Somewhere in France, dear mother.
Somewhere but I can't tell.
In the midst of the fray,
I'm writing today,
That I'm still alive and well. 
There are some fine big boys from Tipperary,
Somewhere in France with me.
So cheer up dear, the next time you'll hear,
I'll be somewhere in Germany.
 
We now change the scene, for the postman has been.
And outside the old cabin door.
A mother in tears, it's the first time she hears
From her boy who is fighting in the war. 
Still full of pride, she dries her eyes
And soon forgets her pain
She seems to hear him singing, as she reads it once again
 

The song was originally a Music Hall hit for coster comic Kate Carney – later it was sung by (her daughter ?) Dolly Carney. It dates from the period in the first world war when the early optimism that the war would be over by Christmas was beginning to fade. It was written by two British soldiers on active duty and reflects their restrictions on what they could put in letters home.

It was also recorded by Stanley Kirby