This is my favorite song of all time, and the most emotionally-moving. The song is based on the real life-letters of an Irish father to his emigrant son in America.
As the son of Irish immigrants, this song really hits home with me. I have long understood the sadness and longing of the emigrant who has left home for a faraway land. But, it was not until I became a parent myself that I began to comprehend the loss and sorrow of the parents left behind (my grandparents, for example).
This song captures those feelings better than anything else I have come across.The song always brings tears to my eyes and makes me want to reach out and hold my kids tight.
My late Father, Tom Keogh, wrote a poem about emigration. As a proud Kildare man who never emigrated himself , he seen us leaving Ireland and wondered how we must have felt about having to leave our Country, our families, our home. I was reading the words and it
ReplyDeleteoccured to me, that they probably mean more now, today, than they did all those years ago. I decided to put his words to music.You can hear it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIuZlsj5xJ0
Hope you enjoy......
larrykeogh@ymail.com
Nicely done, Mr. Keough.
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