“The Fields of Athenry” is a song written in 1979 by Pete St. John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation to the Australian penal colony at Botany Bay. Pete St. John stated he heard a story about a young man from the Athenry area who had been caught stealing corn to feed his family during the Irish famine years, and was deported to Australia. A claim was made in 1996 that a broadsheet ballad published in the 1880s had similar words; however, the folklorist and researcher John Moulden found no basis to this claim, and Pete St. John stated that he wrote the words as well as the music.
In 1979, the song was recorded by Danny Doyle, reaching the top ten in the Irish Singles Chart. The song charted again in 1982 for Barleycorn, reaching number seven in Ireland, but the most successful version was released by Paddy Reilly in 1982. While peaking only at number four, it remained in the Irish charts for 72 weeks. Two further versions have since reached the Irish top ten: the Cox Crew getting to number five in 1999, while Dance to Tipperary peaked at number six in 2001.
The lyrics say the convict’s crime is that he “stole Trevelyan’s corn”; this is a reference to Charles Edward Trevelyan, a senior English civil servant in the administration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin Castle. Trevelyan famously said, “the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson”. The corn in question, wheat oats and barley, were being grown in Ireland and exported notwithstanding the potato famine: popular tradition holds that Trevelyan was culpable for failing to prevent its export.
In 1831, a visitor to Ireland recorded the anguish of the transported and their families: “The first sound I heard as I approached the Irish coast, was the accent of distress. As the steamer rounded the harbour of Kingstown, she passed under the stern of a convict ship moored near the shore; on the opposite rocks were seated some women miserably attired, with infants in their arms, and in a state of grief and wretchedness: one of them shouted in Irish to the ship, from the bars of which was heard the voice of a man in reply. The prisoners on board were rioters, who, having been sentenced to transportation, were thus taking their last farewell of their desolate families”.
The song’s popularity, due in part to its use at sporting events, has helped to attract tourists to Athenry. In recognition of this, the town’s officials invited Pete St. John to a civic reception and presented him with a mace and chain as a token of their appreciation. Celtic Football Club in Glasgow has a large following in Ireland and among people in Scotland of Irish descent. During the Great Famine in Ireland during the 1840s, 100,000 Irish famine victims emigrated to Glasgow. When Celtic’s long-serving Irish goalkeeper Packie Bonner had a testimonial match in 1991, he invited Pete St. John to attend the event and speak to the crowd before the game. St John began by thanking Glasgow for looking after the famine victims, and then began to sing “Fields of Athenry”, accompanied by thousands of fans. He later described it as one of the most memorable moments of his life.
