Was Annie Moore from Ireland, who was all of fifteen years" They opened Ellis Island and they left the people through.Īnd the first to cross that threshold of that Isle of hope Isle of Tears As the first person to be processed at the newly opened facility, she was presented with a $10 gold piece.Ī song of what's left behind in Ireland and one of hope in the future of an new land of America. When a little girl Annie Moore left the shores of Cobh (called Queenstown at the time) Ireland, and arrived at the shores of New York, she was the first person through the newly opened Ellis Island, in 1892. Here is a wonderful version by Celtic Woman When troubles come and my heart burdened be When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary "I glimpse eternity" it is a moving funeral song, opening with the lines Written by Rolf Løvland and Brendan Graham, this is an uplifting song of lyrics, starting out 'so weary', which has been sung by some of Irish leading singers and groups - such as Brian Kennedy, Westlife, and international stars such as the 12 Tenors and Josh Groban. The tune is an adaptation of an old traditional air Carrigdhoun.Īlthough one of the great Irish love anthems, the song, in time-honoured Percy French fashion, is spiced with more than a glimmer of humour which adds to the exquisite pathos of the song.įor some, this is the perfect funeral song, encompassing mourning, exile, the beauty of Ireland, romance and humour. The lyrics of The Mountains Of Mourne were written by Roscommon man Percy French. This magnificent musical and lyrical meshing produced one of the great love poems in the Irish canon, and a song which graces many a farewell to loved ones. Patrick Kavanagh set the lovelorn lyrics of Raglan Road to a traditional air The Dawning of the Day, and slowed the composition right down. It is thus a song of nostalgia and love, and a likely choice for any Dubliner’s funeral. The strongly nostalgic tone of the lyrics are made even more poignant because of the changes which have overtaken Dublin in such a remarkably short time over the last few decades, some good, some not so good. More Bertoldt Brecht than Molly Malone, the impassioned lyrics of The Rare Ould Times song evokes an old Dublin that has long disappeared. “My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes, I’m part of what was Dublin, in the rare ould times.” It makes the perfect threnody for a funeral. The extraordinary and lasting popularity of the song comes from the marriage of Colum’s verses to that melody. In an effort to both pay tribute to Percy Grainger, and to create a symphonic setting of this timeless folk ballad in a manner similar to what he might have written himself, I present “Carrickfergus Posy”, a Symphonic Tone Poem for Wind Band, composed in the style of the immortal Percy Aldridge Grainger.Writer Pádraic Colum reworked these verses, adding several almost ethereal lyrics of his own. The verses were then combined with a melody either collected, re-worked or written by musicologist Herbert Hughes. “Carrickfergus” would have fit that mold perfectly, as its lyrics tell the tragic tale of an old and sickly man who wants only to be able to return to his beloved home town of Carrickfergus to die, but cannot. Percy Grainger loved to arrange songs containing lyrics and story lines of a tragic nature, the tone and flavor of which he would incorporate into his works. Had Grainger not passed away in 1961, prior to the revival of “Carrickfergus”, he may very well have chosen it as the subject of yet another masterwork for Wind Band. The Australian-born composer Percy Aldridge Grainger, who migrated to London, and later to the United States, built an iconic career around his masterful arrangements and settings of well-known European, mainly British, folk songs. Since then, the song’s popularity has exploded, and it has been recorded by dozens of recording artists over the past several decades. He made a studio recording of the song in the mid- 1960s. The beautiful and haunting Irish folk song “Carrickfergus” was almost lost and forgotten to the ages, had it not been for the Irish-born actor Peter O’Toole, who sang the song to his friend, recording artist Dominic Behan.
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