Origins: Fields of Athenry (Pete St.John)

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry (Pete St.John)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 May 22 - 01:59 AM

Also this:

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FIELDS OF ATHENRY (alternative version)

By a lonely prison wall I heard a young girl calling
Michael they are singing it again
If I hear it one more time, I think I'll lose my mind
I'm so fed up with the Fields of Athenry

cho: Oh no the Fields of Athenry
If I hear it one more time I think I'll die
It's such a boring song it goes on and on and on
I'm so fed up with the Fields of Athenry

From within the prison wall I heard a young man calling
Mary why do you think I'm here
In here we all agree transportation'll set us free
Free from the Fields of Athenry

By a lonely harbour wall I saw the last star falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the tide
Hold on that girl did say I'm coming with you to Botany Bay
To escape from the Fields of Athenry

@parody @Irish @transportation
filename[ ATHENRY2
TUNE FILE: ATHNRY
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XX
oct00

Popup Midi Player

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry (Pete St.John)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 May 22 - 01:57 AM

Here are the Digital Tradition lyrics. Is that all there is? I have a Pete St. John Songbook right here in this room. Wish I could find it. It's a skinny little thing and got lost amid the Big Books. But can can anybody find a Pete St. John version in print, so we can verify the lyrics in the Digital Tradition?

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FIELDS OF ATHENRY (DT Lyrics)

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
"Michael, they have taken 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 round 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 cut me down.
Now you must raise our child with dignity."
By a lonely harbor wall, she watched the last star fall
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
For she lived to hope and pray for her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry.


@Irish @jail @love @parting
recorded by the Bards
filename[ ATHNRY
TUNE FILE: ATHNRY
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF

Popup Midi Player

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry (Pete St.John)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 09:02 PM

Well, Liverpool fans (of which I'm one) sing a song to the same tune called the Fields of Anfield Road. The song refers to two of Liverpool's legendary managers, Bill Shankly (aka God) and Bob Paisley, the winger Steve Heighway and the Liverpool utter legend Kenny Dalglish. The Kop is the end of the ground from which the fans famously sing their anthems. There's also a reference to the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 in which a crush at another ground, Hillsborough in Sheffield, killed 96 Liverpool supporters. The Liverpool kit is red.

If you google "Fields of Athenry Liverpool FC" you'll get a few YouTubes popping up. I can't listen just now as Mrs Steve is in bed, which is indeed where I should be.

Outside the Shankly Gates
I heard a Kopite calling
Shankly, they have taken you away
But you left a great eleven
Before you went to heaven
Now it's glory round the Fields of Anfield Road

--Chorus--
All round the fields of Anfield Road
Where once we watched the King Kenny play (and could he play!)
Stevie Heighway on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
'Bout the glory, round the Fields of Anfield Road

Outside the Paisley Gates
I heard a Kopite calling
Paisley, they have taken you away
But you led the great eleven
Back in Rome in 77
And the Redmen they're still playing the same way

Chorus...

Beside the Hillsborough flame
I heard a Kopite mourning
Why so many taken on that day?
Justice has never been done
But their memory will carry on
There'll be glory round the Fields of Anfield Road.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 07:02 PM

Anybody have a YouTube video of the football version of this song?

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: banjoman
Date: 27 Oct 16 - 07:03 AM

A version of FOA has become a standard anthem of Liverpool Football Club

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 26 Oct 16 - 12:53 PM

Crikey!

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Oct 16 - 10:12 AM

My friend Martin wanted to sing this song but because of the football problem scandal that was going on this did not make him very happy at first but myself and my mum and the rest of my group Braveheart said this is not a song for entertaining for old folks homes but when he made an album of him singing songs the person he was working on the backing track for this album who I can't name was impressed by his record and the album is a success in my music record collection. Peter St. John the writer of this song I can not get a record the song as far I know the first record was by a folk singer called Paddy Riley cause that is how I first heard the song and that is how Marten my friend got to no it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 07:39 AM

Given that it's recent, I'm so tempted to write an extra verse for Tuam, that field being on the Athenry Road...

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: MartinRyan
Date: 01 Dec 14 - 05:13 AM

Harking back to my story about who showed Pete St. John the Famine records - the man in question (Michael D. Higgins) is now President of Ireland!

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 06:17 PM

Interesting thread. I just surfed in because I found the incredible spectacle of Irish football fans singing "Fields of Athenry" in the dying minutes of their teams crushing loss to Spain quite moving. Euro 2012: as Ireland is eliminated their fans raised the roof. New respect for "football" fans

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 07:51 PM

A good idea to read a thread before posting to it...

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 06:00 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: KHNic
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 05:40 PM

"The Fields of Athenry" was written in the 1970s by Pete St. John.A claim was made in 1996 that a broadsheet ballad published in the 1880s had similar words; however, the folklorist and researcher John Moulden found no basis to this claim, and Pete St. John has stated definitively that he wrote the words as well as the music.

OK, it's from Wikipedia, but Pete St John.com
seems to agree, and who are we to doubt him.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: BobKnight
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 05:37 PM

As far as I'm aware it was written by Pete St John.

Subject: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: mg
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 05:25 PM

Is this an older song? I came across this on internet that says it was published in 1888 but I am not sure where this is from

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.iisresource.org/Documents/0A1_Irish_History_Song.pdf&embedded=true

Were the words older and Pete St. John put the tune to it or is my internet find not true? mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,JOM
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 03:18 PM

What puzzles me is why Pete St John has never been able his copyright and c ollect royalties, if he is indeed the author of the song

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: trevek
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 09:42 AM

Did anyone else giggle when they heard FoA played in the film "Dead Poets' Society"? The film is set in the 1950's, at least 25 years before the song was written.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: trevek
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 09:38 AM

I believe Robert Kee gives a list of some of the cargoes departing from Ireland at the time. There was an amzing amount of food, including meat, being shipped abroad.

With regards to Pete St John's alleged use of older songs, I always thought "Flight of Earls" sounded a lot like the Wevford song "The Auld Caubeen".

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: ardmacha joe
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 08:24 AM

There are many fine versions of The Fields of Athenry.I agree with an earlier answer Pete St John wrote these words

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,SinnFein
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 05:29 PM

That would be The Dropkick Murphys.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,SinnFein
Date: 09 Dec 08 - 05:26 PM

DKM's version rocks.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Frank_Finn
Date: 19 Oct 08 - 08:05 AM

Of course   --- thats it

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 08:12 PM

Frank

Whenever you get that feeling, the answer is always the same. It's a version of "The Star of the County Down"! On at least one occasion I've sat through a session and sung only songs to versions of that tune - without anyone realising it!

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Frank_Finn
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 06:56 PM

Hello Martin. A great song indeed and a refreshing alternative to the more popular version. I know the air but have not performed it yet. It is a common enough air but what other song is sung to it. Racking my brains here!!

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 05:57 PM

Frank

A very different (and in my opinion), much more "traditional-feeling" song - though written after Pete St. John's one! I've told the story elsewhere in this forum of how I sang a shortened version of Tim Dennehy's already shortened version of John Flanagan's original, in Kinvara a few years ago - and found out that John was sitting in front of me at the time!

Great song.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Frank_Finn
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 05:39 PM

Here is another version of Fields Of Athenry

Composed by Tony Waldron and John Flanagan

Down by the Clareen's mossy banks one evening I did stray
To while away the leisure hours before the close of day.
My mind began to wander to the days long long gone by
When I roamed as free as Gaoth na Sí o'er the fields of Athenry.

T'was often with our dogs and sticks just at the break of day,
Barefooted o'er the dew clad grass we carelessly did stray.
To hunt the rabbits and course the hare 'til the moon rose in the sky.
Those were the happy days we spent, round the fields of Athenry.

Then homeward bound at evening time we'd wend our weary way
And we'd talk of the thrills and all the spills that we had throughout the day
And when the new moon we would see up in the evening sky
And we'd hear the curlew's plaintive call round the Fields of Athenry

And we had some famous hunting dogs I'll mention but a few.
There was Red and Speed and Rebel brave, we had noble Murty too.
But Bruno was the king of all as o'er the sod he'd fly
And 'twas woe betide the hare that strayed 'round the fields of Athenry.

All through the long hot summer days through those green fields we strayed.
While a youthful blood coursed in our veins and death seemed far away.
Sure we thought we were immortal that 'twas just the old that died.
Ah but now there's few of the friends I knew round the fields of Athenry.

I remember well young Jimmy so wild without a care.
As he sped across the moorlands you could see his flaxen hair
Just to watch himself and Rebel it would fill your heart with joy.
As they hunted for the rabbits 'round the fields of Athenry.

I recall to mind young Joseph who left for the Irish guards.
He was tall and square with long blonde hair he outran us all by yards.
But still in all his ramblings beneath an alien sky,
In his heart he was home a-hunting round the fields of Athenry.

Ah but now I'm old and my head is grey and I'm bowed with the weight of years.
When I think about those happy times sure my eyes grow dim with tears.
But still I love to ramble where the trout rise to the fly.
Down by the Clareen's mossy banks that flows through Athenry.

And when the Lord will call for me and my final peace be made.
On that hallowed hill above the town 'tis there I will be laid.
And when the final judgement comes with its fanfare from the sky
I will rise and then I will hunt again 'round the fields of Athenry

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,GUEST, Gerry
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 03:22 PM

All I did was to look up the lyrics and I found myself - somehow - here.
Many thanks to all contributors for an enlightening read. I have a mate, Roy, who's played a few gigs with Pete St. John in the past, and he told me that Pete wrote it. That seems pretty well confirmed now.

Thanks again

Gerry

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: MartinRyan
Date: 29 Sep 08 - 01:24 PM

He wrote it!

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,The Establishers
Date: 29 Sep 08 - 01:09 PM

Hi to all
Wow this thread has taken some reading and also has enlightened me for one .
Myself and my wife have worked in the entertainment industry now for 10yrs and have over the last 2 yrs put Fields Of Athenry in our sets
yes i say sets as we have in all 5 seperate sets of songs and this great song is in all of them .
we have performed it in england ,northern ireland and europe and have always had a great response and never been shown the door .
well done   Pete St john if you did write it and if not well done anyway for reviving the song .

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: MartinRyan
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 06:12 PM

Guest Seamus
The answer is given elsewhere in this (marathon) thread as Brian O'Donnell.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,seamus
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 01:35 PM

who sings the fields of athenry in the soundtrack of the film veronica guerin ?

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 May 05 - 09:26 PM

In my time, I've met drunks who claimed all sorts of things like that. I don't think that you need attach any weight at all to what she told you; unless her grandmother was a man called Pete, perhaps.

Subject: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: erinmaidin
Date: 13 May 05 - 08:51 PM

Met a woman a week or so ago, fairly in her cups she was, who insisted that her gran wrote "Fields of Athenry". Would love some solid evidence to find out if it is at all possible that she is telling the truth! Anyone?

---

I moved this message here from another thread on the same topic.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST
Date: 09 May 05 - 10:51 AM

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,UNSTRUMENTAL
Date: 02 Apr 05 - 06:03 AM

Hehe, sorry, i did mean instrumental.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,Bainbo
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 10:07 AM

Love the idea of an UNSTRUMENTAL. That'll be unaccompanied voices, then? If it's not a word already, it should be! :)

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,anyone know where to get the instrumental of
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 07:54 AM

anyone know where to get the unstrumental of athenry

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Tradsinger
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 03:12 PM

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Peter St John's "Rare Old Times" which IMHO is a much better songs than the F of A.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,David k
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 01:30 PM

anyone got the brush shields versioin ?

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 03:47 PM

You underestimate the strength of fanatical political dogma, Slim Jim. Trevelyan believed that the deaths of uneconomically unviable people in a famine were a price worth paying for economic and social changes he wished to see.

It's a way of thinking that has been common enough over the last century in a number of regimes, and it still is today. People who think like that aren't too worried about the nationality of the people who pay that price.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 03:45 PM

You underestimate the strength of fanatical political dogma, Slim Jim. Trevelyan believed that the deaths of uneconomically viable people in a famine were a price worth paying for economic and social changes he wished to see.

It's a way of thinking that has been common enough over the last century in a number of regimes, and it still is today. People who think like that aren't too worried about the nationality of the people who pay that price.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,Slim Jim
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 03:25 PM

McGRATH please apply for a brain transplant, "there is little doubt that had English people been starving, his attitude would have been the same", duck here comes a flying pig.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: Alice
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 02:17 PM

10 year old Brian O'Donnell, singing the chorus of Fields of Athenry in the film score for Veronica Guerin, can be heard in this sound clip. The movie track is called "Bad News".
Click here

from www.cinemusic.net/reviews/2003/veronica_guerin.html
Veronica Guerin (film)
soundtrack
quote
..."Bad News" performed by Brian O'Donnell from the scene following
Veronica's murder. Gregson-Williams wrote and orchestrated these songs,
performed emotionally by O'Connor. "Bad News" is probably the most
touching track on the album, as Gregson-Williams outlines in the liner
notes. He heard a boy (O'Donnell) singing on the street for money in
Dublin when he arrived to spend a few days on the set of the film.
Later, he tracked the boy down again and recorded him singing six or
seven folk songs a Capella in a quiet alley. Gregson-Williams chose
"Fields of Athenry" from the recording and added his own music around
the song for the moving scene to create a piece of music that is as
authentic as one could get. Easily the best track on the album,
Gregson-Williams' most complex orchestration with violin, flute, and
french horn follows O'Donnell's song, backed by light marching percussion..." end quote



- Alice

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 08:45 AM

See here

But it's wrong to see this as being anti-Irish as such. What was evident here was an insanely dogmatic Economic Liberalism at work - there is little doubt that, if it had been English people starving, his attitude would have been the same - see this passage putting it more in context.

Strange how the term "liberal" has changed its meaning.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From:
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 06:53 PM

I have a book called Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. It quotes Charles Trevelyan as saying:
"The famine is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful and rebellious country; an indolent and un-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God's providence."

It also quotes him as being Assistant Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury, 1847. (Knighted in 1848 for overseeing famine relief)

Does anyone know how accurate this is?

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From:
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 03:52 PM

To fix the last link above:

Assistant Secretary & Greatest of the Victorian Civil Servant

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From:
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 03:48 PM

For further reading:

An Gorta Mór - The Great Hunger

Political Ecology & the Irish Potato Famine - (see pages 11 and 19 for mention of Trevelyan

Mentions acting Treasury Minister Charles Trevelyan

Assistant Secretary & Greatest of the Vitorian Civil Servant

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From:
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 03:31 PM

Charles Trevelyan - History of
It only mentions him working in Ireland as Private Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who was Lord Houghton.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: GUEST,Lark
Date: 05 Aug 04 - 01:41 PM

I wonder how many Americans have posted on this thread... I heard this song for the first time at a Dropkick Murphys concert in Boston, surrounded by those very same "sweaty punks" and figured chances were slim that the Murphys were the composers! I am in a university a-capella group that sings (badly) Irish music (after a few too many drinks) at the top of our lungs, but I was unfamiliar with Athenry. Quite a controversy surrounding it! I'll have to do a tad more research before I dare introduce the song to the rest of the crew. Is the general consensus that Trevelyan was assistant-secretary to the treasury?      
Oi.

Subject: RE: Origins: Fields of Athenry
From: erinmaidin
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 05:06 AM

Only on Mudcat can one see so much written about so little.