Here you are, Claire. Good choice of song!

The following is reprinted from 'Traditional Songs and Singers' published by Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann (1977?), where Séamus Mac Mathúna says:

LONE SHANAKYLE

I was sure that this song had been "lost" as I had never heard more than a few lines of it in a score or more years; but when I met Michael Flanagan of Inagh in 1974 it was the first song on his lips. It comes from the Kilrush area of County Clare. Shanakyle (in Irish, SeanaChill) is the site of a graveyard outside Kilrush, and Inis Cathaigh is, of course, St. Senan's Island — also known as Scattery Island, on the Shannon.

There is a passion and sincerity in Michael Flanagan's rendering which never fails to grip his lesteners; some lines paint a startling, even an appalling picture, e.g.-
"Dark, dark is the night-cloud o'er lone Shanakyle
Where the murdered sleep silently pile upon pile
In the coffinless graves of poor Erin."

The parish of Kilrush and the surrounding areas were most grievous strucken during the famine years. A total of over 3,900 people died in the workhouse in Kilrush during the three years 1847-'49 and most of these were carted to a common famine pit in Shanakyle. The evidence can be seen in the graveyard to this day, and no amount of re-writing of Irish history can change these facts.

Lone Shanakyle was written by thomas Madigan of Carnacalla, Kilrush (1797-1881) who was a scholar and poet, writing in both English and Irish and a friend of that other renowned West Clare scholar Eoghan 0 Comhrai. Lone Shanakyle was probably written during the 1860's, the last verse being inspired by the expected Fenian Rising. The air is a variant of the "Paistin Fionn"

MICHAEL FLANAGAN of Ballyduffbeg, Inagh, Co. Clare, was 81 years of age when I recorded this song and some ten others from him in April 1974. Even at that age he is one of the best traditional singers I have heard. He sings with a heart and involvement which one might expect from a man of half his years.