Linda Connell Studley: Music

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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

After six weeks at sea we saw Newfoundland's shore

Sailing down to Grosse Ile took the ship two weeks more

Then the Captain he said "Since your parents are dead

You must go now with Father Bernard here instead."

Then the Father he smiled as he held out his hand

And the words that he uttered they sounded so grand

"Come along child you're wanted. Take my hand child you're needed.

God will find you a home in this land. God will find you a home in this land."