Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears lyrics

Celtic Woman

On the first day of January,
Eighteen ninety-two,
They opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
Of that Isle of hope and tears,
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was all of fifteen years.

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you've left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.

In her little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years

[Instrumental]

When they closed down Ellis Island
In nineteen fourty-three,
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto it's piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're fifteen years.

Song Details

Annie Moore Statue — Statue of Annie Moore and her
brothers on the quayside
in Cobh, Ireland.

Author: Brendan Graham - lyricist, songwriter and novelist from County Tipperary, Ireland... other famous compositions include, The Voice, and You Raise Me Up.

Brief: The song is about Annie Moore, the first Irish emigrant to the United States in 1892 to pass through the Ellis Island facility in New York Harbour. She was fifteen years old and was accompanied by her two younger brothers, Anthony and Philip. Their parents had come to America in 1888 from County Cork, Ireland, and were living in Manhattan, New York City when they were re-united with their children 4 years later.

Four million people left Ireland and emigrated to America from 1820 - 1920 via the Port of New York. They saw America as 'the land of hope' with the prospect of a brighter future with freedom and greater opportunities to provide for their families and loved ones.

References:
Ellis Island - situated in Upper New York Bay, and was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States.
County Cork - a county in Ireland located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster.
Cobh, Ireland - popular tourist seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. It was known as Queenstown from 1850 - 1920.

Category: Irish Folk

Covers: Ronan Tynan, Sean Keane, Sean & Dolores Keane, Daniel O'Donnell, Celtic Thunder, Brian Dunphy, Tommy Fleming, Andy Cooney, Father Ray Kelly, Hayley Griffiths, Patrick Feeney.

Album: Voices Of Angels (Nov 18, 2016).

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