Fields of Athenry

Fields of Athenry is an Irish Folk ballad composed during the Great Famine (an Gorta Mór), which was a period of mass starvation and disease back in the nineteenth century mainly caused by a potato maladie commonly called potato blight which affected roughly 1/3 of the local population. The song details the travails of a fictional man named Michael from County galway who has been forced to relocate to Botany bay, in Australia, out of punishment for stealing food to feed his starving family.

Lyrics:

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
"Michael they are taking you away
For you stole Travellyn´s corn
so that the young might see the morn´
Now the 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 ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity"


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 harbour wall
she watched the last star falling
While the prison ship
sailed out against the sky
Sure she wait and hope and pray
for her love in Botany Bay
It´s so lonely round the fields of Athenry


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

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