> Folk Music > Songs > The Green Fields of Canada / The Green Fields of America
The Green Fields of Canada / The Green Fields of America
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Paddy Tunney sang the Irish emigration ballad The Green Fields of Canada in 1962 on his Folk-Legacy album The Man of Songs. He also sang it in February 1975 in a recording session in the crypt of St John the Baptist, Kensington, London. This was released in the same year on his Topic album The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow, and in 1998 on the Topic anthology Farewell, My Own Dear Native Land (The Voice of the People Volume 4). Diane Hamilton and Sean O’Boyle noted on the first album:
This is a genuine Irish Exile song and is to be compared in manner, style and sentiment with The Hills of Glenswilly.
Planxty sang The Green Fields of Canada in 1974 on their LP Cold Blow and the Rainy Night. They noted:
This beautiful song is from the great repertoire of Paddy Tunney of Belleek, Co. Fermanagh. Unlike most emigration songs the emigré in this song appears to believe he has done the right thing.
Paul Brady sang The Green Fields of Canada in 1985 on the charity album Feed the Folk and the House Band recorded in the same your for their eponymous Topic album, The House Band.
The O’Halloran Brothers played the reel The Green Fields of America in 1976 on The Men of the Island and Martin Simpson played it in 1977 on the tribute album to British Fylde guitars, Fylde Acoustic.
In this video, Martin Simpson played the tune The Green Fields of America at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California on 19 November 2008:
Cherish the Ladies sang The Green Fields of Canada in 2005 on their Rounder album Woman of the House. They noted:
This emigration song is one associated with County Fermanagh singer, Paddy Tunney and one that can be found in his book The Stone Fiddle. There are numerous versions of this song and often times it is referred to as The Green Fields of America.
Jon Boden sang The Green Fields of America as the 17 March 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted in his blog:
I got this from Planxty. There’s also a nice version available on iTunes sung by Marguerite Hutchinson (Magpie Lane) with yours truly on uilleann pipes. I sold the pipes shortly afterwards so it may be the only surviving evidence of that particular obsession.
Ciarán Boyle sang The Green Fields of Canada in 2012 on his Hallamshire Traditions CD Bright Flame. He noted:
The Green Fields of Canada is one if the ‘big songs’ in the tradition I believe. Again this is from my dad’s [Tommy Boyle’s] repertoire. I think he may have learned it from Oliver Mulligan who resided in London. This song of emigration is both pertinent and poignant to all immigrants (and their families), especially the line, “with the best in the house, I will cheer him and welcome’, which is a principle which my father and others like him always adopted.
Niamh Parsons sang Green Fields of America in 2016 on Eileen Ivers’ album Beyond the Bog Road. Eileen Ivers noted:
One of the hardest times in Irish history was from 1845 to 1849, the years of the Great Famine or as many prefer to call it, the Great Irish Hunger. Out of a population of approximately eight million people in Ireland, one and a half million men, women and children starved to death, one million people left, and the exodus to America and Canada that continued through the latter part of the 19th century reduced Ireland’s population by almost half. There are mass famine graves all over Ireland, especially in the West. Still etched in the landscape to this present day are the ridges and hollows of the potato beds where the potato crop failed, an eerie reminder of that horrific period. As people lay dying all over Ireland, livestock and grain were being exported to England daily as payment of rents and taxes.[…]
Green Fields of America is one of the great songs of emigration. It is one that speaks of hope in this traumatic time of farewell. Niamh Parsons learned it from the singing of the great song collector Paddy Tunney.
The Haar sang The Green Fields of Canada in 2020 on their eponymous first album, The Haar.
Lyrics
Paddy Tunney sings The Green Fields of Canada
Farewell to the groves of shillelagh and shamrock,
Farewell to the girls of old Ireland all round.
May their hearts be as merry as ever I would wish them
When far away across the ocean I’m bound.
My father is old and my mother quite feeble,
To leave their own country it grieves them full sore.
Oh, the tears down their cheeks in great drops they are rolling
To think they must die upon a foreign shore.
But what matters to me where my bones may be buried
If in peace and contentment I can spend my life.
Oh, the green fields of Canada they’re daily a-blooming;
That I’ll find an end to my misery and strife.
So it’s pack up your sea stores and consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week isn’t very bad pay;
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages
When you’re on the green fields of America.
The sheep run unsheared and the land’s gone to rushes;
The handyman’s gone and the winder of creels.
Away o’er the ocean go journeyman tailors
And fiddlers who flaked out the old mountain reels.
But sure I mind the time when old Ireland was flourishing,
When lots of our tradesmen did work for good pay.
But since out manufacturies have crossed the Atlantic,
Sure, now we must follow to America.
So it’s pack up your sea stores and consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week isn’t very bad pay;
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages
When you’re on the green fields of America.
And it’s now to conclude and to finish my ditty;
If ever friendless Irishmen chances my way:
With the best in the house I will greet him and welcome
At home on the green fields of America.
So it’s pack up your sea stores and consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week isn’t very bad pay;
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages
When you’re on the green fields of America.