THE PEOPLES PRESS: The Story Behind the World’s Most Loved Ballad. It explains how the Fields of Athenry became Ireland’s most famous song.

The song surfaces at sporting events. It also appears in pub sessions and folk music festivals. The Fields of Athenry has become Ireland’s calling card.

The Fields of Athenry is the most famous Irish song of its generation. It is perhaps the most popular song ever. Yet, very few seem to know its history and background.

The Fields of Athenry has more than 846 versions on YouTube and has been translated into 50 languages.

The Fields of Athenry has become Ireland’s calling card. It springs up at sporting events from Celtic soccer to Munster rugby. It also appears at pub sessions and folk music festivals.

The song is now so famous that there are even spin-offs of it. Liverpool Football Club supporters sing The Fields of Anfield Road with the same tune. In Northern Ireland, The Fields of Aughnacloy has become popular.

In what was perhaps one of its most famous moments, The Fields of Athenry was sung. The song lasted for as long as eight minutes.

This happened during the final game of Ireland’s participation in the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship.

Fans knew the team was knocked out 4-0 by Spain. It was the ultimate tribute to the tune.

Spain’s manager Vincente del Bosque said afterwards: ‘I thought that the Irish fans were exceptional. The players showed us what the game is really about’.

Meanwhile, Arsenal’s famed manager Arsene Wenger was working as a French TV pundit. He asked the commentators to stop talking. This allowed viewers to hear the Irish singing. The German commentators did the same.

By common consensus, it was one of the most moving moments in sport. The defeated team was cheered to the echo by their hardcore fans. They sang their anthem.

Who wrote The Fields of Athenry?

Many think it is an old ballad. In fact, The Fields of Athenry was written in Dublin in 1979 by the incredibly talented Pete St. John.

Originally released the same year by the folksinger Danny Doyle, it gained wide popularity. It went on to be covered by more than 500 performers.

Sadly, Pete St. John passed away on March 12, 2022, aged 90. Pete St. John lived an itinerant life. He traveled the world and has spent 15 years in the United States.

When he returned home, he saw a country that had changed. Many of the old ways were gone. He remembered this in his other famous song, Dublin in the Rare Old Times.

The song made Pete St. John famous. It created a new Irish anthem in a country redolent with Famine folk memories. People may not fully comprehend these memories.

The most famous version of The Fields of Athenry was sung by balladeer Paddy Reilly. It spent 73 weeks in the charts early in the 1980s. This success cemented the imprint of the song on the national Irish psyche.

RIGHT: Forty Shades of Verse by MIchael Walsh. Click Pic for more details.

The song title comes from an east Galway town. It is 25 miles from Galway City. Few could find this town on a map. The town would have remained relatively obscure if not for the song, which has made it internationally famous.

The major breakthrough occurred when it was adopted by Celtic Football Club as their anthem. Pete St. John remembers singing the song a acapella before 60,0000 Celtic fans and feeling overwhelmed when they all joined in. The song never looked back after.

A hit song about the Westminster contrived Great Irish Famine

Speaking to the Scottish Daily Record in 2004, St. John said The Fields of Athenry is a song about the potato famine in Ireland – it’s that simple. I’d gone to Galway and read some Gaelic tracts about how tough life was in those dreadful times.

The people were starving and corn had been imported from America to help them. But it was Indian corn with a kernel so hard that the mills here in Ireland couldn’t grind it.’

‘So, it lay uselessly in stores at the docks in Dublin. Nobody trusted the authorities. The Crown was not believed to tell them the truth. Consequently, hundreds of starving Irish people marched on the city to get the grain. Some were arrested and shipped off to Australia in prison ships.’

‘I wrote a ballad about it. I invented Michael, Mary, and a baby. They are a family torn apart because the husband stole corn to feed his family.’

‘The Trevelyan in the lyric was the Crown agent at the time, he did exist. That inspired the line Against the famine and the Crown I rebelled’‘.

‘All this information came from Galway. I set the song in Athenry. It is a little Galway village where the potato fields lay empty … the fields of Athenry.’

After Paddy Reilly, Pete St. John’s now-famous tune was covered by several other Irish artists. This includes The Dubliners, Paddy Reilly, Frank Patterson, Danny Doyle, and Johnny McEvoy.

Other artists are Mary Black, Dublin City Ramblers, Luke Kelly, and Ronnie Drew. The Barleycorn, Sonny Knowles, Brendan Shine, and Daniel O’Donnell also covered it. There are also countless others.

As Sean Laffey, editor of Irish Music magazine, stated: ‘Pete St. John’s The Fields of Athenry has become an anthem for the masses. This happened after it was brilliantly interpreted by Paddy Reilly. Similarly, the Corries’ Flower of Scotland is now almost the unofficial national anthem of the Scots.’

‘Remember these were written when pop music was at its most pervasive. The folk quality of the songs has triumphed over the ephemeral fashions… The value of songs like The Fields of Athenry is truly priceless.’

The Fields of Athenry

.

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling

Michael, they are taking you away

For you stole Trevelyan’s corn so the young might see the morn

Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.

.

Low lie the fields of Athenry

Where once we watched the small free birds fly

Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing

It’s so lonely around the fields of Athenry.

.

By a lonely prison wall

I heard a young man calling

Nothing matters Mary when you’re free

Against the Famine and the Crown,

I rebelled, they ran me down,

Now you must raise our child with dignity.

,

By a lonely harbour wall

She watched the last star falling

As 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 around the fields of Athenry.

.

You can share this story on social media:

FORTY SHADES OF VERSE by Michael Walsh, in legend, verse and stories provides the enigmatic mirror image of the ancient Irish Nation. The Bard of Ireland’s illustrated verse crosses frontiers. The award-winning poet’s Irish blood alchemy reveals Ireland’s soul, its yearning for peace, love, justice, hope, charity and romance. LINK TO BOOK https://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-walsh/forty-shades-of-verse/paperback/product-gj8rk4w.html?page=1&pageSize=4