Across the Western Ocean

For centuries Irish people on both sides of the Atlantic have expressed some of their deepest cultural concerns and memories through song. Passed on orally and in print, they afforded a portal through which everyday experience was filtered and understood.This folio addresses the experiences of Famine victims and Irish emigrants thematically through song. It explores songs describing the eviction of helpless tenants from their homes and lands, songs about leaving Ireland, songs of lovers parting from one another, songs about the hazards of the crossing, songs about arriving in North America, and, finally, songs about the challenges faced by immigrants settling into a new life in a new land.Ireland's Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University publishes Famine Folios, a unique resource for students, scholars and researchers, as well as general readers, covering many aspects of the Famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 - the worst demographic catastrophe of nineteenth-century Europe.The essays are interdisciplinary in nature, and make available new research in Famine studies by internationally established scholars in history, art history, cultural theory, philosophy, media history, political economy, literature and music.