Robbie O'Connell & Finbar Clancy - Kilkelly Ireland Song (1995)
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Over the past several months I have been tracing my ancestors. For those of you who have not yet done so I heartily recommend it. It's a great way to reconnect to your family and your history. It is also a journey of many surprises. You will likely learn that you are not who you think you are.
"Kilkelly, Ireland" is a song by Steven and Peter Jones. It tells the story of an Irish emigrant to America through a series of letters from his father back in Kilkelly. It has five verses covering the period between 1860 and 1892.
The Jones brothers based the song on letters from their great-great-grandfather, Brian Hunt, to his son John, their great-grandfather. As Brian was illiterate, the letters were actually written by dictation to the local schoolmaster, Patrick McNamara, who had been a friend of John's.
It has been covered by many artists, including Robbie O'Connell, Atwater-Donnelly, The Dubliners, Mick Moloney, Seán Keane, Ciara Considine, Jim Brannigan, and David Gans (with Eric Rawlins).
Editors Note; This video is excerpted from a Clancy Brothers farewell concert at the Regal Theatre in Clonmel, Ireland in 1995.It features Robbie on vocals & Finbar on the flute.
I'm a truck driver and I was making deliveries in the Boston area around St. Patrick's day. This song came on the radio. I started crying so hard I had to pull over to the side of the road. I didn't get the name of the song, or the artist. I have tried to find this song for years. Many thanks to who ever posted this! This song must be the saddest song ever written.
I love Boston. I have visited many times. Hello from an Irish immigrant in London. 🇮🇪🇺🇸🇮🇪🇺🇸🇮🇪🇺🇸
If sad songs are your thing as they are with me, I recommend Hank Snow's "The Blind Boy's Prayer" and "The Drunkard's Son"". Prepare yourself!
sawman sawyertheman listen to the version by the Irish Roses - her voice haunts your mind while you hear her sing
@@encrypter46 Sad lyrics but the music is way to jolly.
@@pigdogmtb283 I doubt we're talking about the same music.
"He called for you at the end...."
That line slays me every time....
brings tears...
Thanks Mike for tuning in.
I know your post was a long time ago and you might not even see this but i learned this song a while ago on guitar and i'm not even exagerating i've never got passed the third verse without my voice going to complete wobble meltdown. I'll ride down a mountain on a pushbike but can i sing Kilkelly Ireland. No i can't.
The same here!
It's a tear jerker Mike
Fighting tears to write this. The first time I ever heard this song was June 1997 in the cemetery in Kilkelly sang by Danny O'Flaherty. I can still smell the breeze and feel the stone whenever I hear these words.
Understand and thanks for sharing.
I first heard Danny and Patrick O’Flaherty sing it on St. Patrick’s Day, 1994 at their place, O’Flaherty’s Irish Channel Pub in New Orleans when I was in grad school. No kidding….everyone in the place was sobbing. Including my German exchange student buddy, who understood instantly what he’d been told about our immigrant forebears, and what he’d learned in his history class about the Irish in New Orleans, who died in droves digging the canals, as bad or worse than the railroad work. I still have the letters of my original Irish ancestor, a Carmody from Co. Clare who married a girl from Co. Mayo.
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!
For more than thirty years I was away from family. I saw my mother perhaps twice in the span of thirty six years. Over the last few years I'd been playing this song frequently, and thinking on my own family and how much I missed all of them. For the last few years I was convinced I would never see my mother again in this world. Then things changed. I'm living at my mom's place now, being a caregiver for her, so she can STAY in her home for her final days. I love this song, and Robbie O'Connell's version of this song is poignant and Finbar's playing of the flute is haunting.
Thank you for being there for her ❤️ 💕
Wow,I'm crying after hearing this song. Strange how this simple song has such a tender message.
I've probably heard this a dozen times over the last seven years, and the sense of regret and loss here brings me to tears each time. Don't neglect your family or your roots.
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.
What a coincidence! Great story
I first heard this song in 1990 or 1991 when I was a grad student at Penn State. It gripped me to the bone. I even got to hear it sung live. I started researching my roots and, yes, my mother's side of the family came from Mayo in the 1840s right at the beginning of the famine. The next generation married the daughter of my great great grandparents who were Quebecois-Mohawk and fleeing Canada's civil war and wars against Native people. They settled in Chicago in the 1850s and suffered from rags to riches to rags again. Alcohol, suicide, and many unmarried relatives saddened each generation. There is a lot of sorrow in this song and a lot of truth. I should go home to Ireland. My retirement is not that long away. Perhaps my cousins need comforting, too.
God bless the irish all over the world
Hauntingly beautiful...reminds me of when my grandmother would watch my sister and me and tell stories about Ireland. She always wanted to go back and visit but she never was able to, God rest her.
Cublcle Bear...I have no Irish blood in me but it breaks my heart because remembers me of the day my mum left her hometown, her childhood friends and her job during the civil war to come to italy and marry my dad...today is 25 years from that day but she still cries when remembers it...
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.
This song pulls at the heartstrings of every Irish man and woman.
As an Irishman of the modern world,I cannot imagine the hardship and sorrow of this song. But my God,it is a brilliant though heartbreaking piece of work. It will make you weep.Hell,it'll make your dog weep.
This song has one of the saddest tones I have ever heard, beautifully played and sung by Robbie and Finbar's flute playing has a magical air which few modern players can achieve. A most powerful and tragic song indeed, sláinte
If sad songs are your thing as they are with me, I recommend Hank Snow's "The Blind Boy's Prayer" and "The Drunkard's Son"". Prepare yourself!
Does anyone know if the flute melody is ornamental or if it is a known and named tune?
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:(
If this does not get you somewhere deep then it's time to call the undertaker…..you've passed on without realising it.
Thank you Mik for checking out my site and for your comment.
As the son of an Irish immigrant, this song always has me in tears.
I am an American who most likely has Irish ancestry and this song hit me tonight after hearing several times this year. I feel such a connection to Ireland! God bless you!
Thanks Abby for visiting the channel and taking the time to express your thoughts.
This song makes me cry, every time. I don't know the details of my family's immigration from Ireland but my soul feels a deep connection to the sentiments of this lovely, heart-breaking song.
Thanks for visiting The Hammer Works.
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 .....
This song always hits me hard, I think of my kids now grown leading their own lives thousand of miles away and I hardly see them anymore. I know this is how life is supposed to be but God I miss them so much.
Great song, perfect performance by Robbie, it could be about thousands and thousands of irish people forced to leave their country through starvation and English landlords,
This is probably my all time favorite song. It speaks to me vert strongly, because all four of my grandparents emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This was their life.
Thanks Sheila for visiting the Hammer works.
How could I have grown up on celtic music--listening to the Clancy brothers before I could barely talk--always am listening to different artists and groups, play them on piano, guitar or tin whistle, and never had heard of this song? I can't stop bawling. This is my favorite version. The others don't come close. The beyond beautiful guitar picking, the ethereal flute but especially Robbie's delivery in weaving the image of this story through his voice and eyes. He feels it so we do then too. He gives it the space and inflection without overdoing it to take it with honesty right into your soul. Unbelievably beautiful. A fusion of Irish storytelling and song at it's best.
My grandfather Michael John Crayton or James Michael crayton was born in Killkelly,
Around 1881 I wish I had known him, he lived here in England, this song makes me think of him.
I first heard this song when my uncle sang it in our local pub with no backround music just his voice and the whole pub stayed silent some even crying wow what a song
Thanks Tom for visiting The Hammer Works..
I heard this song year ago on the radio and sat at the table and cried like a baby. I didn"t g et the name of the song when I first heard it I was too busy crying then one day last week I was listening to the Irish newfoundland music show and it came on so I tried not to cry this time and got the name of the song. Thanks for posting it . JIM
If sad songs are your thing as they are with me, I recommend Hank Snow's "The Blind Boy's Prayer" and "The Drunkard's Son"". Prepare yourself!
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❤
My heart is crying , the separation from my native place kills me, God bless all old elders (:
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-
This song haunts me. The loss, the sorrow, the way life is sometimes.
Thank you sharon for checking in with us.
My history class (back in eighth grade, I think) did a study of this song. Went through it verse by verse. I can't listen to it without crying.
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.
I came across this song today, very touching and emotional. It hit me hard, and got me thinking about my mother who passed on.
My family all live at most 30-40 minutes of driving away from me, and still this song touches me so much, I have no idea why. Also the part where about Michael having trouble hits too close to home as I myself have a brother called Michael who gets into trouble too, even though he's a good man at heart. I can't understand how can anyone sing the song without crying their eyes out.
A beautiful performance of a truly moving song; it's impossible to hear it with dry eyes.....
My family is scattered all around the US and I rarely get to see any of them, even my parents or siblings. This song makes me cry and call my grandma every time I hear it.
I was wandering through the Salamanca Markets in Hobart Tasmania a few years ago when I first heard this sad song. A young lady with a beautiful voice gave a great rendition that will remain with me forever.
My g-great grandfather was John Kilkelly Wells from County Sligo, emigrated to America in 1857. I always wondered about his middle name but didnt know about the town. Beautiful song.
God bless you.
...jedes mal, wenn ich dieses Lied höre, rührt es mich zu Tränen....
im german and in the military. fist time i heard this song was back in school were we analysed it in english class. now i find myself a few years later in quite the same situation. this makes me cry everytime.
I shared this song with a Russian emigrant Nurse in Bondi Junction in 1995, it made her weep for her Homeland also.
This song always brings tears to my eyes and causes me to think of my Great Grandparents who emigrated during this time.
Thank you Mary for taking the time to comment.
My Great, Great, Grandfather left Ireland in 1838 to settle in New Brunswick, Canada. He ever went back but his family remained there. This song reminds me of him. He had children name Bridget, Michael and John.
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 😂
This is so authentic. A great pleasure to listen to this Version of this very nice Song. Thanks to Robbie & Finbar Clancy...
My Dad has always had a thing for Irish/Welsh/Scottish/British folk music, so I basically grew up with this kind of melodies and topics in my ears.
I remember I was in high school when he lent me a cd containing this song and explaining me what it was about.
I didn't fully get it at first (I'm not a native English speaker), then I took the lyrics and gosh, it had me crying so bad.
Most times it came on my ipod I just skipped it, not being able to bear it.
I was cutting potatoes earlier and I remembered that's where I learnt what a "crop of potatoes" is, so I searched it, and I was so sure this song wouldn't hit me again, since it wasn't new for me.
Well, no, it hit me even worse, since I got to listen to the intro about the background.
Now I'm here in the kitchen, I only want to hug my parents and grandparents. I feel so bad for having left them, emigrating to another country...
''The house is so empty and sad'' ~ gulp :(
Im 4years I Ireland and this song bought al of my love for this country 💚
I clearly recall the first time I heard this (on tv & about this time) and how hard it hit me. To this day, it still brings tears to my eyes. We all have ancestors who came to America with dreams of a better life and most immigrant stories are much the same - my family letters are to and from Sweden saying so many of the same things. I understand maybe 1 in 10 ever made it back home. My heart hurts for every mother and father who never saw their sons & daughters again and never knew their grandchildren. Grandchildren never knew them, or aunts, uncles or cousins. It took some time to find this CD because I didn't catch the singer or the title the first time. But this live version of this hauntingly beautiful song is priceless.
Kigsgrama Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us.
you can find this on a double cd called bringing it all back home from a series from r t e & b b c tv prog following the music when it left Ireland and returned with different influences in later years wonderfull series at the time
It just goes to show that every country was in the same boat
This has to be the saddest Song I‘ve ever heard. But it is so beautiful too. Very well sung by Robbie. I love this song. It always makes me cry 😢
Every time I hear this song, I tear up. It makes me want to grab John, shake him and tell him to go visit his father.
Thanks for this! It's one of the saddest yet true to life songs I've ever heard.
Tifty's Annie Thanks you for visiting the site.
I miss my family , I hope that nothing happen to them while I'm away thinking of that makes me cry so hard .
I'm Irish Canadian and this song really gets me. There are so many of us around the world with Irish blood. We're so separate and yet something so old and unique connects us.
Thanks Nicola for sharing your views.
I cry every time I hear it... even though I don't share your Irish blood. It describes the experience of so many of my friends' families who came to America during the potato famine.
Eli Makynen I think it has more to do with the Irish diaspora more than anything ... but I guess your comment wasn't very serious in the first place
I make it for about about 1 minute before I start to loose a tear or two - best song ever. I've no Irish relatives - only English and Scottish - but my wife is from Tipp so often visit - such a sad story and all so true!
Also worth listening to Culloden………..
I'm not irish, but I love this song, a heartbreaking song for anyone who is living far from his homeland like me :(
Thank you for visiting the channel.
My dad, a stoic Russian Jew from Brooklyn, started crying just from my telling him about it. I didn't even have to play it.
We're all the same no matter where we're from just members of the human race, but I'm proud that the man who wrote this song was of Irish decent. As an Irishman who never had to immigrate I say God bless America three out of four of my grandparents spend time working their and were able to build up their farms and educate their families.
This is a reflection of life, life of an expat the joy and sadeness of a letter from home. Its a song that pulled me through my sorrow.
THis is the lament of every expat who left home seeking a better life and then became unable to leave where they ended up. I am an Australian expat who lives in Argentina. My parents are abou tto die and I am not there to see them in their twilight years. This song brings tears to my eyes every time.
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.
I probably would not ever have found this masterpiece if not for the platform. Just have to say that, but my god this is good music, thank you for sharing it to us! Love from Sweden!
Nobody can guilt quite like the Irish, and this song proves it. When anyone starts doing this, I automatically think of this song.
ChrisCucinell Which part invokes guilt?
Guilt? This is sorrow.
My parents played this every weekend growing up. I still cry.
I can't play it on the car. I drive into trees, blind with tears. Always manage to hold it together till the last verse, but then the dam breaks...
Amazing song. Brought tears to my eyes. It really cuts deep.
This is such a beautiful song. It's such a sad song that touches my heart.
Thanks for tuning in.
Nicely done Robbie
Such a heart breaking song
Wonderful
Thanks for tuning in, GC.
@@janhammer39 no problem
Beautiful and sad song. I am sure this is why my ancestors immigrated to America.
I am obsessed with his voice
I had a tape of this song from the 80s that I listened to as a kid (I think from Thistle and Shamrock). Hadn't heard it since. Randomly thought of it today and came to this video. Was surprised to find I remembered every word. It really gets to the heart of the Irish American experience. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Vince for tuning in. I am pleased that you found us.
My grandparents came to New York in the late 1800's as young adults to NYC. They unfortunately never returned yet made a successful life for themselves here. I asked my Dad why they never returned to visit. He said they had a long sea voyage seeing many of their brothers and sisters quarantined and dying of consumption. They had it very tough in the early years yet persevered and sent enough money back home to enable their family in Ireland to build homes. They lived till the 90's and never lost their Irish brogues.
My mother played this song for me many many times. I fully remember it.
This song chokes me up every time I hear it. Just an amazing piece of work.
Thanks for checking out my site and for your comment. It turns out I have ancestors from Killkelly.
Today I posted a reminiscence about my grandmother's exodus from Ireland on my Facebook wall. Some of my generation have since made it back to live in the old country, and my son's going to visit for the first time in a few weeks. I shall see Ireland too some day.
This whole comment section is people remembering where they were when they first heard this song. That is the sign of a great song.
The most beautiful song ever. Very personal..I think of my dad
Robbie plays this song beautifully!
Thanks Russ for visiting my site and taking the time to comment.
I perform this with my harp, or my old harp. I haven't worked it up with my new double harp. It's a great song. I heard Mike Dugger perform it on his CD. I love it and I love singing it. Lovely job performing.
In school I learned this song off by heart because I live in Kilkelly. A Truly Beautiful song.
Thanks Paul for visiting my site and for your comment.
I spent 17 days in Kilkelly way back in 1982. Lovely town and I hear there have been some changes. If you see this note, kindly drop me a message - I'd love to ask you a couple of questions.
so darned sad, haven't listened to it in a while. Well, it's every bit as heart-rending as the first time I heard it, such pathos and longing!
The end almost kills me every time I hear it. The thought of being separated from someone you love for 30 years, double my age, and then passing away with the name of that person on your lips. It's so insanely sad😔
Love this song hauntingly beautiful. Even though we managed to stay in Ireland despite so much emigration feel so much for all our people who left their homes never to return
I spent more than thirty years only seeing my mother TWICE. I was terrified that SHE was going to pass, calling for me. Then about six months ago it was decided that she needed someone in the house and I also have the training that was needed for her circumstance. I'm grateful my fears did NOT come to pass. I treasure each and every moment I have with her. *edit* As sad as this song and songs like it are, the experiences are far worse for those living 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.
One of the most descriptive songs I have ever heard, -thank you
After hearing this songs years ago like everyone hear I could not stop crying. I finally learned this song for my Irish band Garda. List it a few times singing in public. I was releifed to read all your comments and know I'm not the only cry baby.
Darren
The first time I heard this song was from mix tape my older brother gave me in 1996, I have never found another song that captures the deep separation that comes in all our lives. As a 15 year old kid who missed his brother I memorized the words and to this day will sing it in the kitchen where I work. Time makes us all refugees from our family.
Thank you for checking in with us and for taking the time to comment.
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.
In my youth, my brother used to blast this song, and despite my requests to turn it off, I fell in love with it.
My Granny Mary-Anne came from a village called Ballure, ct. Mayo which is about a mile from Kilkelly. Mayo God help us!
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.
I first heard this song at the Crane Bar in Galway. Sung by a female playing a harp. It slayed me. Didn't know the name of it at the time and for many years I've wondered. I was just in Valencia, Spain and met an Irishman at a bar who told me about a song that he thought was one of the best/saddest songs he'd ever heard. I wondered if it was the same as the one I'd heard in Galway many years ago. It was.
This song and lyrics are heart felt. What a masterpiece
I heard this on a Cd I bought in the USA called Bringing it All Back Home, it is probably the saddest song I have ever heard & extremely moving, Robbie O' Connell was the singer on that album
Thanks Jon, I believe I've heard that version as well. It's just a lovely song.
@@janhammer39 I have that CD album, too. First heard/saw this on a documentary on PBS on Irish immigration to US.
Thanks for checking in with us.
This is a song we have created a sacred circle dance to, have been sharing it through New England for several years, was searching for Robbie's song There is Hope, which we also hope to choreograph in the sacred circle dance tradition..great performance ! Thanks for sharing, Taimichal
Beautiful song. My regards from Cracov-Poland.
We love Poland. Thanks for tuning in.
How can he sing this without breaking down and ugly sobbing like me. Damn.
I'm Irish American. this song breaks my heart.
Thanks Nancy for visiting the channel
I am Polish but it breaks mine too. I heard it first time 12 years ago, sang by a Scottish group. Stayed in my heart since then!
Thanks for your comment.
Love this song! For a long time it was stuck in my head for days and nights, keeping me awake, turning in my head, haunting me. I finally went to the healer I work with who does past-life regression work and soul retrieval work. Not to my surprise, I went back to a prior life when I died in the potato famine. I do have Irish ancestry, so I wasn't sure if it was a "cellular" memory, but either way, the haunting stopped after the healing session, thank goodness!
Absolutely love this song ,thank you for posting it on youtube ,i listen to it daily ,thank you a hundred times over
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.
still the best version of this song I have listened to.
Came to find one tune and find this gem ..💚💚💚
One of the finest songs ever written. My GGGG Grandparents came from Wexford in late 1700’s to Newfoundland. I don’t know for sure but I am very doubtful any of them ever made it back home. So very sad.
The first time I heard this song I was in my 11th grade history class, such a sad song about the past.