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You are here: Home / Entertainment / Ships, Boats And Ferries – A Nostalgic Tribute

Ships, Boats And Ferries – A Nostalgic Tribute

April 29, 2014 by Irish American Mom 8 Comments

Ferries and ships depart and dock at Dublin’s ports on a daily basis. These boats mesmerize me.  Whenever I am in Dublin I often sit in my car, parked at the Summit in Howth, overlooking Dublin Bay.  Dublin’s waters grow busy, especially during afternoon rush hour.

Nostalgia overwhelms me watching Dublin’s shipping lanes. I left Ireland by airplane, so at first I didn’t understand why boats strike an emotional chord in my heart.

Stena Line

My mother will never watch these boats with me. She says they make her too sad, reminding her of days when all three of her daughters worked across the waters on foreign shores.

But I have never experienced a mother’s sadness at the loss of her children, yet these boats remind me of our nation’s sorrow. We are a country of immigrants, and even to this very day the Ireland’s young people are boarding ships and planes to seek their fortunes on distant shores.

In America boats are associated with leisure pursuits such as fishing, water skiing, cruising, and house-boating. The lonesomeness of immigration does not spring to most Americans’ minds upon seeing a water craft.

Not so for the Irish. Ever since I was a child, I have listened to Ireland’s folk music. Many of our traditional songs emphasize the pain of leaving family, friends and homeland. When I examined the lyrics of some Irish boat songs I realized I have been programmed since an early age to feel nostalgic at the sight of a ship.

In today’s post I share some excerpts from the sad, lonely songs of Ireland which focus on the pain of leaving. I hope these photos I took last summer will help illustrate the poignancy of these well-loved words.

The Cliffs Of Dooneen

 

“You may travel far far from your own native land

Far away o’er the mountains, far away o’er the foam

But of all the fine places that I’ve ever been

Sure there’s none can compare with the cliffs of Doneen.”

 

Irish Ferries By The Bailey Lighthouse

Carrickfergus

 

“I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only four nights in Ballygran

I would swim over the deepest ocean, the deepest ocean for my love to find.

But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over, and neither have I wings to fly

If I could find me a handsome boatman to ferry me over to my love and I.”

 

Irish Ferries

Come Back Paddy Reilly

 

“And tones that are tender and tones that are gruff

Are whispering over the sea,

“Come back, Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff

Come home, Paddy Reilly, to me”.

 

Ship By Howth

Botany Bay

 

“Farewell to your bricks and mortar

Farewell to your dirty lime

Farewell to your gangway and gang planks

And to hell with your overtime

For the good ship Ragamuffin

She is lying at the quay

For to take old Pat with a shovel on his back

To the shores of Botany Bay.”

 

Stena Line Passing Howth

The Shores Of Amerikay

 

“I’m bidding farewell to the land of my youth and the home I love so well

And the mountains so grand round my own native land

I’m bidding them all farewell

With an aching heart I’ll bid them adieu

For tomorrow I’ll sail far away

O’er the raging foam for to seek a home

On the shores of Amerikay.”

 

Stena Line Passing the Kish Lighthouse

Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore

 

“Our ship she lies at anchor, she’s standing by the quay

May fortune bright shine down each night, as we sail over the sea

Many ships were lost, many lives it cost on the journey that lies before

With a tear in my eye I’m bidding good-bye to Paddy’s Green shamrock shore.”

 

Ferry Leaving Dublin

The Leaving Of Liverpool

 

“So fare thee well, my own true love

And when I return, united we will be

It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me

But my darling, when I think of thee.”

 

Ferry In Dublin Bay

The Irish Rover

 

“In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and six

We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

For the grand city hall of New York

‘Twas an elegant craft, she was rigged fore and aft

And oh how the trade winds drove her

She could stand several blasts, she had twenty-seven masts

And they called her the Irish Rover.”

 

Ferry Photo Taken on Dollymount

The Holy Ground

 

“Now when we’re out a-sailing and you are far behind

Fine letters will I write to you with the secrets of my mind,

The secrets of my mind, my girl, you’re the girl that I adore,

And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more.

You’re the girl that I adore,

And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more.”

 

Boat In Dublin Bay

Farewell To Dublin In My Tears

 

“And now I’m standing on the Quay, my destiny’s uncertain

Where fortunes have been lost and won with the dealing of a hand

The past it is a purple haze, the future is an untold maze

The present is another gaze at dear old Dublin Town.”

 

Crow Watching The Stena Line Ferry

Home To Donegal

 

“The lights of London, are far behind

The thoughts of homeland are crowding my mind

Familiar places, come in to view

I see my home now, soon I’ll see you.”

 

Dublin's Boat, Ships and Ferries

Fiddler’s Green

 

“Wrap me up in me oil-skin and jumper

No more on the docks I’ll be seen

Just tell me old shipmates,

I’m taking a trip mates

And I’ll see you some day in Fiddler’s Green.”

 

Dublin Port

The Fields Of Athenry

 

“By a lonely harbour wall

She watched the last star falling.

And that prison ship sailed out against the sky.

Sure she’ll wait and hope and pray,

for her love in Botany Bay.

It’s so lonely round the fields of Athenry.”

 

I hope you’re not too teary after all these sad lyrics. Nostalgic and sentimental definitely are words to describe these excerpts.

And so now I think you’ll understand why the mere sight of a ship makes me a little wistful.  Do you ever feel the same way?

 

 

Slán agus beannacht,

(Goodbye and blessings)

Irish American Mom

 

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Filed Under: Entertainment, Irish Life, Irish Music Tagged With: Boat, Immigrant Tales, Immigration, Irish, Irish Songs, Music, Ships, Traditional Irish Music

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Comments

  1. Cheryl Barker says

    April 30, 2014 at 11:40 pm

    Love the blues of the water and sky in your photos, Mairead. Such vibrant shots!

    Reply
    • Irish American Mom says

      May 8, 2014 at 6:34 am

      Thanks Cheryl. I was lucky to be in Ireland last summer. It was glorious, with the sun shining brightly on many summer days. It was unusually warm, with very little of our customary rain.
      Best wishes,
      Mairead

      Reply
  2. Maureen N. says

    May 4, 2014 at 8:40 pm

    Yes, I do, Mairead. Sure, it is not too many generations back, that teems of Irish crossed the ocean in those ‘coffin ships,’ and most knew, and their families too, that they would never return. There are old graveyards all over America with Irish Counties, and Towns, hammered into the lichen-stained headstones. That was all they could do to be remembered. I visited one of those old, half-forgotten graveyards where my husbands ancestors rest, and greeted them in Gaelic, being the only ‘real’ Irish person to come into the family since they left Mother Ireland so long ago. Looking at their resting places was very moving to me. Being an ancient nation of seafarers, we are wistful, at times.
    When I fly back and see the fingers of land stretching out into the sea in the early morning light, I cannot help thinking of those lines in the poem, “O Ireland, isn’t it grand you look, like a bride in her rich adorning; with all the pent up love in my heart, I wish you the top of the morning.”
    Thank you for the post.
    Maureen

    Reply
    • Irish American Mom says

      May 8, 2014 at 6:45 am

      Maureen – What a beautiful story – I think your husband’s ancestors are smiling down from heaven.

      Like you, the fingers of land projecting into the Atlantic on Ireland’s western coast make me wistful. I love the poem you quoted. Every time I visit West Cork, where my mother was born, I love to stand on the edge of the land looking out to sea. I always remember a few lines from the poem, “The Wild Geese”:

      “Oh rough and rude Atlantic, the thunderous the wide,
      Whose kiss is like a soldier’s kiss, it cannot be denied.”

      Ships and the scars left by generations of immigration definitely make us a wistful lot.
      All the best,
      Mairead

      Reply
  3. Terry Johnson says

    May 6, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    “It’s too late now I’m on the ship and there goes Ireland into the night and it’s foolish to be standing on this deck looking back and thinking of my family and Limerick and Malachy and my faher in England and even more foolish that songs are going through my head Roddy McCorley goes to die and Mam gasping Oh the days of the Kerry dancing with poor Mr. Clohessy hacking away in bed and now I want Ireland back at least I had Mam and my brothers and Aunt Aggie bad as she was and Uncle Pa, standing me my first pint, and my bladder is near my eye and here’s a priest standing by me on the deck and you can see he’s curious…..” Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes

    Thanks for the wonderful post, Mairead…and thanks, also, to Maureen N for her lovely comment. TMJ

    Reply
    • Irish American Mom says

      May 8, 2014 at 6:47 am

      Terry – I love that excerpt from Angela’s Ashes. Thanks so much for adding it here.
      All the best,
      Mairead

      Reply
  4. Fr John McCuen says

    June 7, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    The quote from “The Shores of Amerikay” brought tears to my eyes; perhaps because it is very much like the lament of the chorus of, “Lough Sheelin Eviction”:

    Farewell my love, a fond adieu,
    Farewell my comrades and my country, too
    For I’m forced to fly o’re the ocean wide
    From the home I loved by Lough Sheelin’s side

    (The version by the Wolfe Tones never fails to move me to tears.)

    Somehow the ferry doesn’t create a sense of loss that a sailing vessel might, since a ferry suggests movement back and forth, as opposed to a long, and essentially one-way journey across the ocean. That undoubtedly is a reflection of my own family’s immigrant roots; I’m sure those whose families were divided when some left for England to find work, and took a ferry, would see the images differently. But thank you for a most provocative post!

    Reply
    • Irish American Mom says

      June 7, 2014 at 4:44 pm

      Fr. McCuen – I’m glad you enjoyed my nostalgic tribute to Irish ships and ferries. I agree that the sight of an old sailing vessel is more poignant and heart wrenching than a ferry. I love the verse from “Lough Sheelin Eviction” which you’ve added to this collection of immigrant song lyrics. I had forgotten that song, so I listened to it again on YouTube. It definitely is a tear jerker, and the Wolfe Tone’s version is beautiful.
      Thanks so much for stopping by, and joining in our little discussion of all things Irish.
      Best wishes,
      Mairéad

      Reply

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