Hello Jim Carroll,
   I'm one of those people who found my way to Mudcat through Google, consult it from time to time, never joined, not sure if I will now. This May Morning Dew thread has led me to you, and I'd like to connect to ask some queries about these comments of yours: "What has always struck me about most of the emigration songs is that they are private expressions of grief, to be felt rather than 'performed' To over-perform them can be to kill them. Even though I come from a family that first turned up in Britain as 'Famine Refugees', when we started collecting songs in Ireland and were given so many of these laments, I found myself thinking, 'Oh dear, not another one!' That was until I realised their importance to the Irish as a people Living in Ireland now, it's chastening to realise that I don't know a single family which has lost large number to emigration - and that has almost certainly been the case since the middle of the 19th century."
   I'm a writer and singer, of Irish ancestry, I grew up in Chicago (in the very Irish-Catholic Mayor Daley era)and have lived in Canada most of my adult life. Most of my ancestors left Ireland during the famine. I've been tracing one in particular, my great-grandmother who left Mayo in 1847 and spent several years in England before marrying and emigrating to the USA. I'm working on a book about my search for her (frustrating so far) and about how the famine emigration affected families like mine. I've also been immersing myself in emigration songs. I've spent a fair bit of time in Ireland (Galway, Clare, Dublin, Cork) in the past few years, singing in pubs. Now I'm home in Canada, locked down because of Covid19 like everyone else. If I haven't scared you off with this TMI message, I'd be very grateful if you emailed me at mcdonnellkath@gmail.com and/or check out my website at www.kathleenmcdonnell.com. Thanks and best, Kathleen McDonnell