> Folk Music > Songs > Our Ship Is Ready

Our Ship Is Ready / The Emigrant’s Farewell / Farewell, My Love, Remember Me

[ Roud 2995 ; Ballad Index BdRemMeI , RcOSSRBA ; DT FARWLREM ; Mudcat 61580 ; trad.]

Sarah Makem of Keady, Co. Armagh, sang Farewell, My Love, Remember Me to Peter Kennedy and Sean O’Boyle on 30 July 1952. This BBC recording 18474 was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology of ballads sung by British and Irish traditional singers, Good People, Take Warning (The Voice of the People Volume 23). Steve Roud noted:

Only collected a handful of times in Ireland, but probably more widely known than this number implies, and also printed on a number of 19^th century broadsides. The broadside texts are much longer than the one sung here, being usually of seven or eight verses, with Sarah Makem’s second verse as the chorus. It must be said, however, that the other verses add little to the story, being mainly concerned with saying goodbye to different parts of Ireland, and the song only qualifies as a ‘ballad’ because of our rather inclusive definition. The subject of emigration is often encountered in the Irish song tradition, and is usually treated in this sorrowful way.

Sarah Makem also sang Farewell My Love, Remember Me to Diane Hamilton in 1955. This recording was included in 2011 on her Musical Traditions anthology As I Roved Out. Rod Stradling noted:

Emigration songs are common enough in Ireland, but too many of them are written to a stereotyped nostalgic pattern, full of references to beloved scenery and beautiful maidens left lamenting. This fragment recorded by Mrs Makem has all the simplicity of diction that comes from a full heart, and only in the last line do we discover that the emigrant is setting out from Ireland. This one is widely represented in Irish libraries on a Ballad Sheet printed around 1870 by Peter Brereton of Dublin, A much admired song entitled The Emigrant’s Farewell to his country.

Roud has just 15 instances of this lovely song and, sadly, none of the other sound recordings by Robert Cinnamond, Mikeen McCarthy, or Mary Toner is available on CD.

And Sarah Makem sang Farewell My Love, Remember Me (Our Ship Is Ready) in a recording made by Bill Leader in her home in Keady, Co. Armagh in 1967. This recording was released a year later on her Topic LP Mrs Sarah Makem: Ulster Ballad Singer. Sean O’Boyle noted:

Emigration songs are common enough in Ireland, but too many of them are written to a stereotyped nostalgic pattern, full of references to beloved scenery and beautiful maidens left lamenting. This fragment recorded by Mrs Makem has all the simplicity of diction that comes from a full heart, and only in the last line do we discover that the emigrant is setting out from Ireland.

Sarah’s melody is used quite often for songs of farewell in much the same way as the air The Pretty Lasses of Loughrea was used all over the country for Iamentations or execution songs, (see Joyce’s Old Irish Folk Music and Song, pp 219-211). The two best-known printed versions of Sarah’s air are Fare You Well, Sweet Cootehill Town (Joyce, O.I.F.M.S., p 192) and The Parting Glass (Irish Street Ballads, p 69). But until such time as a system of notation is invented to record the true intervals of a foIksinger’s interpretation, Sarah Makem’s version of this air must remain for study on disc or tape.

A fourth recording of Sarah Makem made by Paul Carter and Sean O’Boyle in 1967 too was included in 2012 on her Topic anthology The Heart Is True (The Voice of the People Volume 24).

Robert Cinnamond of Belfast sang Our Ship Is Ready in August 1955 in the BBC recording 24842 made by Sean O’Boyle. The first two of four verses and the chorus were included on the anthology Sailormen and Servingmaids (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 6; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet noted:

Singing in the ancient, highly rubato parlando style of the Gaelic bard, Robert Cinnamond gives us a song, dating back at least a century, that was sung when a group of Irish immigrants were going aboard ship, bound for America. The piece was often followed by a dance called Ireland’s Long Farewell, which the people danced on the quayside before the immigrants said goodbye.

Margaret Barry sang Our Ship Is Ready in a recording made by Bill Leader in Paddington, London, 1957. It was released in the same year on her Topic 10" LP Street Songs and Fiddle Tunes and in 1994 on her Topic CD Her Mantle So Green.

The Ian Campbell Folk Group sang Our Ship Is Ready at an evening at the Jug of Punch folk club at the Crown, Station Street, Birmingham, that was recorded and published in 1962 on their Topic EP Ceilidh at the Crown.

Alison McMorland and Peta Webb sang Our Ship Is Ready in 1980 on their eponymous Topic album Alison McMorland & Peta Webb. Peta Webb sang it with Oak live at the Cheltenham Folk Club, Victory Club, on 24 October 1971, which was included in 2003 on Oak’s Musical Traditions anthology Country Songs and Music, Peta Webb also recorded The Heart Is True (Our Ship Is Ready) in 1986 as the title track of her album with Pete Cooper, The Heart is True, and Alison McMorland sang it in 2007 on her Greentrax CD with Geordie McIntyre, White Wings. Rod Stradling noted in Oak’s Musical Traditions booklet:

A song almost entirely confined to the north of Ireland, it has been collected from Sarah Makem and Robert Cinnamond and other Northern Irish singers, and is a version of the broadside ballad An Emigrant’s Farewell to his Country. Peta learned this from Peter Kennedy’s 1952 recording of Mary Toner, Markethill, Co Armagh [BBC recording 18537]. The broadside has many references to the beauties of Dublin, including Killiney, which Peta heard as Killarney.

Cathal McConnell sang Farewell and Remember Me in 1987 as the title track of Boys of the Lough’s album Farewell and Remember Me. They noted:

This song was recorded some time ago by Sarah Makem, mother of Tommy Makem. Cathal enlists the help of Ron Shaw, an Edinburgh musician, for accompaniment on cello—an instrument which has associations with Scottish traditional music dating back to Niel Gow (1727-1807) and his brother Donald.

Damien Barber sang Our Ship Is Ready in 2000 on his CD The Furrowed Field. He noted:

This traditional Irish song of emigration and love comes from Peta Webb via Alison McMorland and, again, my dad. Although where it comes from before Peta I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll ask her.

Emily Spiers sang The Emigrant’s Farewell on her 2010 CD The Half-Moon Lovers. She noted:

I came across the broadside to this song in the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society’s Axon Ballad collection and loved the vivid imagery. I then heard it sung in a few sessions in Ireland, but it seems to have been popular in England too as the Manchester broadside proves. It was published around the middle of the nineteenth century and is known either as The Emigrant’s Farewell to His Country or Farewell and Remember Me.

Rosie Carson and Kevin Dempsey sang The Emigrant’s Farewell, with lyrics very similar to Emily Spiers’, on their 2011 album Between the Distance.

Sue Brown and Lorraine Irwing sang Our Ship Is Ready in 2012 on their RootBeat album The 13^th Bedroom.

Niamh Parsons and Tim Shelton sang Farewell My Love and Remember Me in 2016 on Eileen Ivers’ album Beyond the Bog Road. Eileen Ivers noted:

Loss is an inevitable part of life… whether it be through immigration or death.

The Furrow Collective sang Our Ship She’s Ready, with an interlude of I Am a Maid That’s Deep in Love after the second verse, on their 2018 album Fathoms. They noted:

This song first appeared on several Irish broadsides, and one or two in England and Scotland, from the mid-nineteenth century, under the title The Emigrant’s Farewell to his Country. We learnt our version from the beautiful singing of Sarah Makem of Co Armagh (1900-1983). We imagine that the words would have felt no less moving back then to those faced with long and dangerous sea voyages—and those they left behind—as they might to those in similar predicaments today. Sarah’s son Tommy and some of her siblings emigrated to America, the latter to Dover, New Hampshire, to work in a cotton mill. Poignantly, she never took the opportunity herself, choosing with her fiance to spend the fare on getting married instead.

Karina Knight sang Do Not Forget Love (The Emigrant’s Farewell) on her 2020 album of songs learned from her parents, From the Knee.

The Haar sang The Emigrant’s Farewell in 2020 on their eponymous first album, The Haar.

Lyrics

Sarah Makem sings Farewell My Love, Remember Me (Our Ship is Ready)

Our ship she’s ready to bear away
Come, comrades o’er the stormy sea
Our snow-white wings they are unfurled
And soon she’ll wave in a watery world.

Do not forget love, do not grieve
The heart that’s true cannot deceive.
My heart and hand I’ll give to thee
So farewell my love, remember me.

Farewell my love, so bright as pearl,
My lovely dark haired, blue eyed girl.
And when I’m crossing the deep blue sea
I hope, in Ireland, you’ll think of me.

Robert Cinnamond sings Our Ship Is Ready

Our ship is ready to bear away,
Come, comrades, o’er the stormy sea,
Her snow-white wings they are unfurled
And soon she’ll sail through the watery world.

Goodbye, my love, soul’s brightest pearl,
My lovely dark-haired blue-eyed girl
For to leave you here my heart feels sore,
But if life remains, love, we’ll meet once more.

Chorus:
Do not forget, love, do not grieve,
For the heart that’s true, it will not deceive;
All my heart and hand I give to thee,
Goodbye, my love, I’ll remember ye.

[ Now I must bid a long adieu,
To away to one her beauty, too,
All that lovely thing surrounding you
Shall stay but I shall go away.

To fair Dalgenny, likewise the glen,
The double waterfall and then
Unto that sweet vale where lovers meet,
There to discourse in accents sweet. ]

Margaret Barry sings Our Ship Is Ready

O our ship she is ready, oh, to bear away
And come sweet comrades o’er the stormy sea.
O my hand and heart I will give to thee,
Fare thee well, my love, and remember me.

Don’t forget, love, do not grieve
For the heart is true and cannot deceive.
O my hand and heart I will give to thee,
Fare thee well, my love, and remember me.

Peta Webb sings Our Ship is Ready

Our ship is ready to bear away
Come, comrades, o’er the stormy sea.
Her snow-white wings, they are unfurled
And soon she’ll swim in a watery world.

Chorus (after each verse):
Ah, do not forget, love; do not grieve,
For the heart is true and can’t deceive.
My heart and hand with you I’ll leave;
Fare thee well truelove and remember me.

Farewell to thee, my precious pearl,
It’s my lovely dark-haired, blue-eyed girl.
And when I’m on the stormy sea;
When you think on Ireland, remember me.

Farewell to Dublin’s hills and braes,
To Killarney’s lakes and silvery seas.
There’s many a bright, long, summer’s day
When we passed those hours of joy away.

Oh, Erin, dear, it grieves my heart
To think that I so soon must part.
And friends so ever-dear and kind
In sorrow I must leave behind.

Emily Spiers sing The Emigrant’s Farewell

Our ship, she is ready for to sail away
And it’s come, my sweet comrades, o’er the stormy sea.
Her snow-white wings they are unfurled
And it’s soon we will swim in a watery world.

Chorus (after each verse):
Don’t forget, love, do not grieve,
For my heart is true and cannot deceive.
My heart and my hand I will give to thee,
So farewell, my love, and remember me.

Farewell, sweet Dublin’s hills and braes,
To Killiney Mountain’s silvery streams,
Where many’s the fine long summer’s day
We loitered hours of joy away.

It’s now I must bid a fond adieu
To Wicklow and her beauties, too,
Avoca’s vales where lovers meet
There for to discourse in accents sweet.

Farewell, sweet Delgany, likewise the glen,
The Dargle waterfall and then
The lovely scenes surrounding Bray
Shall be my thoughts when I’m far away.

The Furrow Collective sing Our Ship She’s Ready

Our ship she’s ready to bear away
Come, comrades, over the stormy sea.
Her snow-white wings, they are unfurled
And soon she’ll wave in a watery world.

Do not forget love, do not grieve,
This heart is true and can’t deceive.
My heart and hand I’ll give to thee
So farewell my love, remember me.

Farewell my love, so bright as pearl,
My lovely dark haired, blue eyed girl.
And when I’m crossing the deep blue sea
I hope, in Ireland, you’ll think of me.

The Haar sing The Emigrant’s Farewell

Our ship she’s ready to sail away
And it’s come, my sweet comrades, o’er the stormy sea.
Her snow-white wings are all unfurled
And soon will swim in a watery world.

Chorus (after each verse):
Don’t forget, love, and do not grieve
For my heart is true and cannot deceive.
My hand and heart I will give to thee,
So farewell, my love, and remember me.

Farewell, sweet Dublin’s hills and braes,
To Killiney Mountain’s silvery streams,
Where many’s the fine long summer’s day
We loitered hours of joy away.

It’s now I must bid a long adieu
To Wicklow and its beauties, too,
Avoca’s vales where lovers meet
There to discourse in accents sweet.

Farewell, sweet Delgany, likewise the glen,
The Dargle waterfall and then
The lovely scenes surrounding Bray
Shall be my thoughts when far away.