Isle Of Hope, Isle Of Tears - Brendan Graham, piano solo version by Hetty Sponselee

When I recently attended a lecture on Celtic music, I heard for the first time this beautiful and tender song. "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” is a typically Irish song composed by Brendan Graham. It is a moving tribute to the experience of Irish immigrants who left everything behind to come to America. It tells the story from Annie Moore from Ireland, who was the first immigrant to the United States to pass through federal immigrant inspection at the Ellis Island station in New York Harbor.
Arranged for piano and played by Hetty Sponselee
Sheet music is available at www.pianotunes.eu
Recording and video by Gé Bijvoet, DutZ Studio
Lyrics ;
On the first day of January 1892
They opened Ellis Island and they let the people through
And the first to cross the threshold of that isle of hope and tears
Was Annie Moore from Ireland who was all of fifteen years
Isle of hope, isle of tears
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it's not the isle you've left behind
That isle of hunger, isle of pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind
In her little bag, she carried all her past and history
And her dreams for the future in the land of liberty
And courage is the passport when your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past when you're fifteen years
Isle of hope, isle of tears
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it's not the isle you've left behind
That isle of hunger, isle of pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind
When they closed down Ellis Island in 1943
Seventeen million people had come there for sanctuary
And in springtime when I came here and I stepped onto its piers
I thought of how it must have been when you're fifteen years
Isle of hope, isle of tears
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it's not the isle you've left behind
That isle of hunger, isle of pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind
Isle of hope, isle of tears
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it's not the isle you've left behind
That isle of hunger, isle of pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind
The isle of home is always on your mind

[@charlesalessandri3286]

Hope or tears, a summary of uncertain future of immigrants...Thank you Hetty for this beautiful arrangement of irish music, for the 100th anniversary of Annie Moore !😊

[@HettySponselee]

It's indeed the 100th anniversary! 😊

[@jankoevoet4042]

Mooi stuk. De emoties zijn duidelijk herkenbaar in de muziek.