Liffeyside

Cathal McConnell of Bellanaleck, Northern Ireland, sang Liffey’s Side on the audio DVD accompanying his 2011 book I Have Travelled the Country, and he sang Liffey Side on Boys of the Lough’s 2015 album The New Line.

This video shows Cathal McConnell singing Liffey’s Side at his book lauch at the William Kennedy Piping Festival 2011:

Nuala Kennedy sang Liffeyside in 2024 on her and Eamon O’Leary’s CD Hydra. They noted:

Liffeyside came to Nuala from her friend and mentor Cathal McConnell of Boys of the Lough, who joins the track on backing vocals. He in turn learned it from the singing of Delia Murphy, a 20th-century Irish song collector. Delia Murphy Kiernan (16 February 1902–11 February 1971) was a singer and collector of Irish ballads, who recorded songs from the 1930s to 1960s. During World War II, while her husband was the Irish Ambassador in Rome, Kiernan aided Vatican official Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty in saving the lives of 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews.

“I fell in love with the song’s universal theme of compassion,” Nuala says. “And we adapted the chorus to make it more of a sing along, so everyone could join in…” Indie-folk singer Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy and Anaïs Mitchell are also singing on the track. And strings are provided by fiddler Liz Knowles.

Lyrics

Nuala Kennedy sings Liffeyside

When some crystal clouds of dawn o’er the moor are peeping,
Past the sheiling where my love through the night is sleeping.

Chorus (after each verse):
From Liffeyside I call you, dear love, don’t ever be forlorn,
Dear love, the night is ending and soon will bring another dawn.

When at noon the sun is high in the sky above you,
Every living thing that moves seems to say that I love you.

In the evening, by the fire, with crickets singing,
The swallows to their nests in the eaves are winging.