Emigrant Songs
SONGS OF IRISH EMIGRATION
Patience. Fortitude. Long-suffering
In the bruise-coloured dusk of the New World.
And all the old songs. And nothing to lose.
From Eavan Boland, 'The Emigrant Irish' (Boland, E. (1995) Collected Poems Manchester: Carcanet).
In Ireland's rich tradition of music and song, emigration is one of the big themes. A large body of material exists, in English and Irish, both in Ireland itself and throughout the Irish diaspora. As well as traditional songs such as Skibbereen, Streams of Bunclody, The Kilnamartyra Exile and Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile, many other pieces composed as 'parlour songs' in Victorian times have since entered into the tradition. Percy French's Mountains of Mourne and Helen Selena Blackwood (Sheridan)'s Lament of an Irish Emigrant are examples.
Continuing emigration in the 1950s, the 1980s and down to the present day has ensured the continuation of a strong tradition of composition, with many new songs becoming part of an enduring repertoire. Pete St John's 1970s composition The Fields of Athenry, about the Great Famine, is sung around the world wherever Irish people gather and has already taken on the timeless quality of the traditional song, a classic in its own age. But many sentimental songs of emigration from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, such as The Old Bog Road and Boys from the County Mayo, are also still sung today.
A variety of themes is evoked in these songs - the beauty of the home place, nostalgia, loss, the pain of departure and exile, but also anger and even bitterness - Black 47's Livin' in America
and the Pogues' iconic Fairy Tale of New York are examples from the modern period. There are relatively few songs in the Irish tradition which celebrate emigration as opportunity, challenge and a better life.
The list which follows is in no way intended to be definitive or exhaustive or especially scholarly. The intention is simply to give a flavour of the range and different styles of songs dealing with Irish emigration and as far as possible to provide links to accessible versions of these songs. We welcome additional material!
DISCLAIMER: all of the links below are provided in good faith to publicly accessible material on Youtube and other sites; we do not own the copyright to the content. If any of these is the subject of a copyright dispute please contact us.
Piaras Mac Éinrí
Click singer or band to listen to versions of the songs
- A Mother's Love's a Blessing
Bridie Gallagher - An Emigrant's Daughter
Machair Folk - Apple of my Eye
Damian Dempsey - Arranmore
Goats don't shave - As I leave behind Neidín
Mary Black and Jimmy McCarthy
Tommy Fleming - A Stór mo chroí
Dervish - Amhráin Leeds
Mícheál Sonny Ó Confhaola - Bán Cnoic Éireann Ó
Skara Brae - Banks of Claudy
Loreena McKennitt - Boys from the County Mayo
Colm O'Donnell - Bundlin (Ramble the Bushes of Australia)
Sean Keane - By the Hush
Andy M. Stewart - City of Chicago
Christy Moore - Cliffs of Dooneen
Christy Moore
Mary Duff
Tommy Fleming - Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff
Brendan O'Dowda
Paddy Reilly - Come by the Hills
Loreena McKennitt - Craigie Hill
Cara Dillon - Cutting the corn in Creeslough
Bridie Gallagher - Deoraí Tír an Fhia
John Beag Ó Flatharta - Did your mother come from Ireland?
Gracie Fields - Don't forget your shovel
Christy Moore - Emigrant Eyes
Dolores Keane - Erin Grá mo Chroí
Colm O'Donnell - Exile's Return
Karan Casey and John Doyle - Fairy Tale of New York
The Pogues and Kirsty McColl - Far Away in Australia
Dolores Keane - Feck the Celtic Tiger
Sir Reg - Fields of Athenry
Dubliners and Paddy Reilly
Drop Kick Murphys
Ireland v Spain, Euro2012, Gdansk - From Clare to Here
Ralph McTell
Nancy Griffith - Galway Bay
Dolores Keane - Generation Lost
Fergus Ahern - Gleanntáin Glas Ghaoth Dobhair
Paul Brady - Goodbye Johnny Dear
Bridie Gallagher - Goodbye Muirsheen Durkin
Dubliners - Gortnamona
Brendan O'Dowda - Green and Red of Mayo
Saw Doctors - Green Fields of Gweedore
Clannad - Green Fields Round Ferbane
P.J. Murrihy - Groves of Kilteevan
Rig the Jig - Heaven around Galway Bay
Bridie Gallagher - Home Away from Home
Sean Keane - Homes of Donegal
Paul Brady and Hiroshi Yamaguchi - I am a youth that's inclined to ramble
Paul Brady - If we only had old Ireland over here
Foster and Allen - I'll take you home again Kathleen
Joseph Locke - I'm leaving Tipperary (Goodbye Mick)
De Danann - Irish Blood, English Heart
Morrissey - I wish I was back home in Derry
Christy Moore - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Irish Tenors
Seán Keane
Willie Kiely - Isle of Inishfree
Paul Larson
Dublin City Ramblers - Kilkelly, Ireland
Clancy Brothers and Robbie O'Connell - Lament of the Irish Emigrant
Raylene Rankin - Life in England
Dexie's Midnight Runners - Livin' in America
Black 47 - Litir ó mo mhéit
John Beag Ó Flatharta - Manana in Manhattan
Pierce Turner - Mary from Dungloe
Christy Moore and Daniel O'Donnell - McAlpine's Fusiliers
Luke Kelly - Many Young Men of Twenty said Goodbye
Dubliners - Missing You
Christy Moore - Mo Mhéit ag filleadh abhaile
Sean Beag Ó Flatharta - Moonlight in Mayo
Bridie Gallagher - Mountains of Mourne
Charlie Landsborough
Don McLean - My Donegal Shore
Big Tom - My Little Son (England's Motorways)
Luke Kelly
Mary Keenan - My Love is in America
Dolores Keane - No Irish Need Apply
Tommy Makem et al - N17
Saw Doctors - Na Connerys
Liam Ó Maonlaí - Nothing but the same old story
Paul Brady - Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore
Andy Irvine and Paul Brady - Paddy's Lamentation
Sinéad O'Connor - Pat Murphy's Meadow (Newfoundland)
Lew Murphy - Pócaí Folamh, Cloigeann Tinn
John Beag Ó Flatharta agus na nAincéirí - Ramblin' Irishman
Mick Daniels
Annemarie O'Riordan - Shores of Amerikay
Dubliners - Shores of Botany Bay
Noel McLoughlin - Skibbereen
Sinéad O'Connor - Slán le Máigh
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile
Mary Greene - Slieve Gallion Braes
Dolores Keane - Spancil Hill
Christy Moore - Streams of Bunclody
Luke Kelly - Teddy O'Neill
Dolores Keane - That Tumble-down Shack in Athlone
John McCormack - Tide Full In
- Helen Chinn
- The Blue Hills of Antrim
The Friel Sisters - The Boys of Bárr na Sráide
Christy Moore - The Green Fields of America
Andy Irvine and Planxty - The Green Fields of Canada
Cherish the Ladies and Heidi Talbot - The Home I left Behind
Mary Keenan - The Holy Ground
Clancy Brothers - The Irish Emigrant
John McCormack - The JCB Song
Seamus Moore - The Little Old Mud Cabin
Eileen Donaghy - The Kilmartyra Exile
Máire Ní Chéileachair - The Maid of Culmore
Cara Dillon - The Old Bog Road
Johnny McEvoy
Hank Locklin
Eileen Donaghy - The Offaly Rover
Derek McCormack - The Shamrock Shore
Paul Brady - Thousands are Sailing
The Pogues - Trasna na dTonnta
Na Casadaigh - Tunnel Tigers
Sean Keane - Van Diemen's Land
U2 - When first unto this country
Planxty - Where the River Shannon Flows
John McCormack
Wild Colonial Boy
Clancy Brothers
Dr Hook