There are two accounts of how the song came to be composed. The one thing that is indisputable is the identity of the poet - the last of the Glens of Antrim poets composing in his native Irish, and interestingly enough ,a Protestant - one Mac Ambróis (Mc Cambridge.) One story has it that he emigrated across the water to Scotland to work, but sitting on a headland looking westwards, he could plainly see his native Antrim Hills. Stricken with "cumhaí" (homesickness / longing for home) he composed the song. The second story has him intending to emigrate, but imagining what exile would be like, he was moved to compose the song, and was so moved by his own lyrics that he stayed at home. They're both good stories. Roddy