Barry T - your song is beautiful. I see from your webpage that you are happy for it to be used. I will be including it next time I cover the Irish Potato Famine and the story of the Irish emigrants with my Year 6 (11 year olds) drama class. I cover the topic over several sessions, where they explore the living conditions and reasons for emigration, and re-enact the thoughts and feelings of the people leaving their homeland and their hopes for the future. They improvise a scene on board ship, leaving the docks, and this song and the story of the real-life people behind it will be make a very moving continuation to this. Many thanks ! I won't be doing this now until next Autumn - I will let you know how it goes. I will teach them the song and tape it for you and you can hear them singing it.

If you have the time to pass on any more details to me about your ancestors and their journey, and are willing for it to be used with the class, I would be most interested.

Isn't Mudcat a wonderful place !

- jeanie