Kilkelly Ireland - Robert Lawrence & Jill Diana Greene

“Kilkelly Ireland” composed by P Jones and S. Jones.
Performed here by Robert Lawrence & Jill Diana Greene
From their album “Legends and Laments”
Available at greene-lawrence...
In the late 1970s or early 1980s PeterJones discovered a collection of century-old letters in his parents' attic in Bethesda, Maryland. The letters had been sent by his great-great-great grandfather, Bryan Hunt, to his son, Jones' great-great grandfather, John Hunt, who had emigrated from Kilkelly, County Mayo, to the United States in 1855 and worked on the railroad. As Bryan was illiterate, the letters were dictated to the local schoolmaster, Pat McNamara (d. 1902), who often wrote letters on behalf of his neighbors who were unable to read and write.
Covering the years 1858 to 1893, the Hunt letters shared family news of births, deaths, and marriages, and reports of the annual harvest. The last letter, dated February 1893, was written by John Hunt's brother, D. Hunt, informing him of the death of their father. Peter Jones decided to compose a ballad based on the contents of the letters.
As there are no known photos of the Hunt family, we used photos of another Irish immigrant family, the Green’s. Many of the photos are of Jill’s ancestors whose lives paralleled the Hunts’. Hoping to escape poverty and famine, they fled Ireland in search of better lives where they could work and send some money back home to their parents. And like the Hunts, they were never again to see their parents and loved ones back home in Eire.

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I first heard this beautiful song sung by a busker at the Salamanca Markets Hobart Tasmania Australia.