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On the Broomielaw Quay​/​Crossing the Moyle

from Some Time I Stood Still by Sean Smith

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Found this song in "The First Book of Irish Ballads," published by Daniel D. O'Keefe in 1955. He didn't include any source information or credit a writer, so I'm more than willing to affix the "traditional" tag to it. Whatever its origins, there's a fascinating story in here, and a window on one of the less-explored aspects of shared Irish-Scottish history: the men who journeyed back and forth from Ireland across the Sea of Moyle to Scotland so they could get work harvesting crops-- usually landing at and disembarking from the wharf on Glasgow's famous Broomielaw. We can only guess why the song's narrator is seemingly exiled from his home (apparently in Donegal), and it's unclear if he himself is or was one of "the harvesters," but his existential pain is touchingly evident.
There was no melody given for the words, so I concocted one by making some alterations to a Scottish air, "The Mermaid's Song (Oran na Maighdinn Mara)." Part of the reworked tune forms the basis for the instrumental at the end of the song.
(Also, I indulged my latent progressive-rock tendencies by using a synthesizer to evoke a nighttime seascape.)

lyrics

November's wind tonight is raw
And whips the Clyde to foam
I watch here on the Broomielaw
The harvesters go home

CHORUS:
Oh, luck is theirs and blessed are they
Who can cross the Sea of Moyle
To see again at dawning gray
The waters of the Foyle

Tomorrow night on starlit ways
They'll go to a loved door
And sit with kin by hearths ablaze
In Rosses and Gweedore

No welcome warm, no lighted pane
Now awaits me in the west
And sorrow keener than the rain
Lies heavy on my breast

But longings often draw me where
The boats for Ireland start
They take an unseen passenger
My lonely Irish heart

Like wild geese in their homing flight
These toilers homeward draw
And leave me lonely in the night
Upon the Broomielaw

(Repeat first verse)

credits

from Some Time I Stood Still, released July 6, 2020

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Sean T. Smith Boston, Massachusetts

Sean Smith has been playing folk music since his teens, with a focus on the traditions of Ireland, Scotland and England in particular. He's been active in the Greater Boston music scene since the early '80s, and been part of numerous collaborations. He also writes about music for BostonIrish.com, helps organize an annual Celtic music festival, and has been known to drink Ballantine Ale. ... more

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