According to singer Frank Harte on Irish Radio some time ago there was a great absence of contemporary songs about the actual hunger. It's almost as if the ballad-maker could not bring himself to write about the horror and starvation that surrounded him.Among the other songs that Frank sang on the programme was this. No title was given.
The mad pictures of women and men walked my way, And its haunted I am in the broad light of day. By the Nore of Kilkenny, I sat down and I cried, For the ghost of a nation that walked by my side.
On the wide falling meadows of fair Slievenamon, The field-mouse was master; the tenant had gone. By Cluan Meala's dark workhouse, I sat down and I cried, For the living and the dead walked as bridegroom and bride
Who emptied the village of Carrigaleen? Who laid out the body of fair Skibbereen? By the stones of Cork Harbour, I sat down and I cried, For the vessel of exile lay dark alongside.
Farewell Castlecomer, Rathkeale and the Nore, Clonmel, Carrigal and the Blackwater Shore. Behind us the landlord and bailiff we leave, And we sail to America our lives for to save.
"Carrigaleen" is probably "Carrigaline" in County Cork. The above was sung by Frank on a programme called "The Famine Years." Hope it helps.