Linda Connell Studley: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

This Land is a song that is very dear to my heart as it started me in my search for my Irish roots. Through ship’s records, old letters, journals, reports and historical accounts I discovered great tragedy, great courage and great hope. This poignant song of passage almost wrote itself.

Our family lived hundreds of years on this land
Between the green hills and the saltwater strand
But the crops they do rot and the rent we have not
And the landlord’s men come burning rick, thatch and cot
Ah, you’re no longer wanted, you’re no longer needed
You no longer live on this land

The Landlord paid passage from here to Quebec
Now we stand in the rain on the Emmalee’s deck
She’s a sad sight indeed as she lists at the quay
And the creaking old timbers are whispering to me
You’re no longer wanted, you’re no longer needed
You no longer live on this land

And the storms they raged on the wild Atlantic
The coffin ship tossed on the sea
The typhus and cholera stalk us like wolves
And death is no stranger to me
And death is no stranger to me

While we prayed on deck, the sharks preyed below
Beneath the cold waves where the bodies are thrown
And the sea falls like rain through the hatchways again
In the crash of the waves I can hear the refrain
Ah, you’re no longer wanted, you’re no longer needed
You no longer live on this land