Robbie O'Connell & Finbar Clancy - Kilkelly Ireland Song (1995)

My Irish Priest from Cork just sang this song for me and my family tonight. It was so moving. I had never heard it before. I will always remember where I heard it first❤

For understanding, you nered to look at the year . then the politics and the occupation ... then you know why most Irtish are behind Palestine..

I've been there and stopped at the church.. i knew the history ..

My great, great, great grandmother was a seamstress. She made men’s vests. She moved from Clare to Dublin when she was 16 but couldn’t make a living so she came to America in the 1830’s. She met an Irish American policeman as she got off the boat. They were married three days later. They moved to Detroit and had five sons, one of whom was my great grandfather, who was a famous cartoonist.

❤❤❤

still the best version of this song I have listened to.

This song hits home with me and brings tears to my eyes every time I play it. My grandfather's family came from Kilkelly and I visited his parents' graves in Hagsfield. Their story was similar to the song, only started in about 1920. All of the eleven children, but one, left for England working mostly in the coal mines and about 5 ended up in the US. I have a copy of two heartbreaking letters written to a brother in England and it reads like the song. One from his mother who died shortly after at age 49 and the other by the sick Dad who mentions the failing crops and poor turf:(

My husband and I just returned from a guided bus tour of Ireland. Our guide played this song and told of Peter Jones and the letters. She warned us that it was a very sad song. I had no idea how sad. The tears ran and my heart hurt. I had also just learned about the plight of the poor people during the potato famine. It is a beautiful song, and the meaning is deep. Now my all-time favorite song!

Beautyful...

Oh Göd....this song moves meg always....

I was travelling through Ireland as a young man, staying at a youth hostel in Galway, and a show playing Irish music came on the TV in the common room. Played this song, and I was just full-on sobbing by the end of the song. So heartbreaking, and powerful.

Hauntingly sad, yet very beautiful song..

This gets me every time

I just cried my eyes out with this song, just the thought of my father going through this just breaks my heart

I was raised with an Irish step-father. My mother is Scotch Irish and my father is Spanish/Basque, but having been born in America and first gen on one side and sixteenth on the other, I can't say the song does more than make me wish I knew and understood my people better. My mother's people have been here so long they've long forgotten that lilt or tie to Ireland I fear. It was the 1600s when they left for totally different reasons than famine. However, I do understand the need to run because of my father's side who ran because of Castro. He was never able to return. I will never go to Cuba because of that issue. I'd rather go to Ireland to be honest. It is a rock and a hard place. Too much time away, or too little. And now America is rotting from the inside it seems with me wanting to run to a place of my ancestors. Pity.

Does anybody know the name of the tune the flautist plays?

Fantastic song, cuts to the bone, not only for Irish but for all immigrants 🍀

how can i get a copy of this, apple music?

I'm not an Irish, but still this ballad made me break into tears like no other song did

I’m so proud to have Irish blood, so sad but wonderfully beautiful ☘️☘️☘️

I love this song but it tears me all to pieces. I cry every time. I have a strong Scottish, Welsh and Irish background in my ancestry. When my only son married, he became estranged to us and that is why that this song rips my heart out. I am 71 years old and not in good health and I miss my son and his two sons so much. I would love to see them before I go.

love this song! as an irish canadian!

This is such a beautiful song. It's such a sad song that touches my heart.

Thank you! For this video! And My Irish family came over to America 1400's

Came to find one tune and find this gem ..💚💚💚

Just found this song today. I always loved it. It reminds me of my parents who emigrated from Ireland to Boston. My father went home after 30 years and died 2 months after. Mom had 7 children. Could never make it home Even for her parents funerals. She never complained about that. Always said you have to give up something to get something in return 😂

So many of us here in ireland can relate to this - letters in attics with faded writing .. whatever happened to them

One of my dads best friends from the ozark mountains in Missouri and Arkansas , his wife would bring her guitar over on holidays and sing us this song , among other folk music , I’ve never forgotten this song , hearing it now takes me right back to my childhood living room , sorting out these lyrics in my head .....as my heart dances on the guitar strings .....

It reminds me of my grandfather when he came to the US through Ellis Island (from Czechoslovakia). He did make it back for a visit in the 50's, I believe, but that was the last time. My father was able to get him to record (on cassette tape) his memories which we later made into a book. However, when we were in East Berlin, his sister, who was quite old, came to visit us and we played the recordings for her. Her family wanted to get going as they had a long drive back, but she snapped at them "when I'm finished listening to my brother's voice" which she hadn't heard for so many years.
This song encapsulates the experience of so many immigrants to the United States. While they were/are in search of a better and perhaps safer life for their children, they also left so much behind.

We are trying to trace
Ancestors who went to America in the 1850’s - to no avail So far -
Why? I’m not really sure - but just like this song there are a few old
Letters in the attic from that time - how hard their lives must have been

This song would still be relevant a century after these letters were written, Irelands biggest export was the people, up until the Celtic tiger years, circa 1990

This song makes me cry every time I hear it. So much love and respect for those who crossed the wide ocean in search of a better life.

In my youth, my brother used to blast this song, and despite my requests to turn it off, I fell in love with it.

One day I will go home. I hope. Or my children will. One way or another we are going home.

I first heard this back in the early 1990's on a radio station KDHX 88.1 FM

I cry most times listening to this song - and I am of Ireland - but makes me remember my ancestors who emigrated during and after the famine-

GORGEOUS!

I come from kilkelley and my greatgrand parents talked about it and my grandparents

Anyone who feels the power of this song should check out the song "Bridge of tears" 😔

Sehr traurig 😢 Liebe Grüße aus Brandenburg/Germany

All four of my grandparents came from Ireland. When I was a little girl the elderly aunts would look at me and say, "Ahh, she has the map of Ireland on her face." But I grew up in this country, and even if we're only talking about people from Europe, there's a lot of variety. And then, there are those from the rest of the world. The very first time I went to Ireland I finally understood. Every single person I saw looked exactly like my brothers and sisters and cousins. As mentioned in the introduction, very few Irish returned to Ireland, unlike people from various other European countries, many of whom went back. My mother's father did make a trip back to Ireland around 1920. My older brother also connected to family back there, specifically when he was travelling with his rugby team. One time, he arrived in Ireland, called up a cousin, and said, "Hey, I'm in town, can we get together?" and the cousin said, "Ahh, no. Tomorrow my son is playing against an American rugby team." Which was the team my brother was playing with! So he got to play against his cousin, and apparently the after party was better than ever.

Commenting a second time deliberately. This song and these letters should be heard.

Man this is the most hard hitting performance of the song I've heard thus far.

my grandfather came to america several times only to return to ireland came back to america after marrying my grandmother had my two oldest uncles in Philadelphia then went back only to die in 1942 at the family farm

This song pulls at the heartstrings of every Irish man and woman.

Sad yes. It’s the immigrant experience. The first generation sacrifices for those of us in the succeeding generations who get to live in the land of the free and make our own lives. Semper Fi.

I first heard this song in 2007 on a trip to Ireland accompanied by Brian O'Donovan and Robbie O'Connell. I have tried several times to get Robbie to sing it everytime I am at one of this shows. He has almost always said that he "wasn't feeling suicidal enough to sing it." This almost was once, at the Blackstone River Theater, a moment I will treasure.

Brits starved us out of our own country, fleeing for hope in a land far away.. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

My mother played this song for me many many times. I fully remember it.

Thank you for posting..
I'm not irish, but from asian nation and working abroad..
It is sad but the song is full of love and hope.