Folk Park Live: Songs of the Settlers

When we look at the global extent of the Irish diaspora since C18th we of course immediately acknowledge its vast scale - some 80 million worldwide claim Irish ancestry. There can hardly be a corner of the planet that exists in which we wouldn’t find our traces, but nowhere more so than in North America, where some 36 million estimate their roots to be Irish. With these emigrants travelled their language, customs, music, faith, their “way of going”. And the mark this has all left is indelible. Emigrating communities tended to initially stay close together in their new lands, so their identities remained intact. Music and song of course played a very strong part in the lives of emigrants – songs of love and longing, of emigration, of home, of war and songs covering just about any subject the human mind can conjure up. 

Instrumental music too was key – fiddlers and pipers playing for dances, weddings, christenings and social gatherings of every kind. As with language, the music and song became intertwined with those of other countries, creating a whole new palette of musical colours.

‘Folk Park Live!’ gathers together some of Northern Ireland’s finest musicians to take us on a journey through music and song that charts emigration and tells us of the lives and plight, the hardships and the successes of those who left Ulster. It includes songs from home and songs written from afar about home; Scottish-influenced fiddle music and piping; Appalachian music; religious songs; bluegrass dance music and slower reflective pieces.

Music is the very heartbeat of this country and these are words and melodies that bind us. The songs are timeless, they will outlive us and be carried forever in the hearts and voices of those yet to come. The connection will never break, the spirit never fail and the light never flicker.