My Lagan Love

Having been recorded by a remarkably diverse selection of legendary musicians over the decades, ‘My Lagan Love’ has become a keystone of the Irish canon. The song is derived from a poem by Joseph Campbell – and set to a traditional air that had been collected in Donegal in 1903 by Campbell's musical collaborator, Herbert Hughes. ‘My Lagan Love’ has since been covered by artists and bands of the calibre of John McCormack, Dusty Springfield, Horslips, Kate Bush, Van Morrison, Charlotte Church, Sinéad O’Connor, The Corrs, Celtic Woman, The Chieftains, Hozier, and indeed many more. The Chieftain’s 2012 version of the track with Lisa Hannigan has garnered over 1.1 million streams on Spotify, while the music video for Celtic Woman’s rendition has attracted over 1.7 million views on YouTube. ‘My Lagan Love’ has been described as one of the greatest love songs ever written.

Sinead O'Connor - an extraordinary version of 'My Lagan Love'

The Story Behind The Song

The seventh of ten children, Joseph Campbell was born into an Irish nationalist family in Belfast in 1879. He joined the Gaelic League around 1900, and began contributing poems to Arthur Griffith’s United Irishman newspaper, writing under the name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil.

Campbell collaborated with Herbert Hughes (also known as Padraig Mac Aodh O’Neill), writing lyrics for several traditional airs that Hughes had gathered on his travels. Their collaboration was published in 1904 as Songs of Uladh (Songs of Ulster), which included the song ‘My Lagan Love’. It is an example of the extraordinary work done by folklorists and collectors, bringing what had been an essentially oral tradition into the realm of learning – and a more reliable form of permanence.

“I made this collection while holidaying in North Dun-na-nGall in August of last year,” Hughes wrote in the preface of the 1904 book. “Stephen Gwynn, whom I met there, introduced me to Proinseas mac Suibhne, farmer, fidiler, and philomath... To Proinseas is due much credit for his efforts to obtain and preserve all the tunes known in his locality.”

In his introduction to ‘My Lagan Love’ in Songs of Uladh, Hughes goes on to note: “I got this tune from Proinseas mac Suibhne, who played it to me on the fidil (nowadays Anglicised to ‘fiddle’ – Ed). He had it from his father, Seaghan mac Suibhne, who learned it from a sapper working on the Ordnance Survey in Tearmann about fifty years ago.” As those who know the song will attest, the melodic twists are essential to its raw beauty and emotional power, offering the singer a unique opportunity to impress his or her own particular stamp, personality or inflections, on the song.

Lis Hannigan and The Chieftains: Music only, released in 2012

Following the publication of ‘My Lagan Love' in Songs of Uladh, famed Irish tenor John McCormack recorded a cover in 1910, accompanied by the American record company Victor’s house orchestra. His version would play a central role in boosting the popularity of the song both in Ireland and overseas.

In 1953, the enormously influential US musicologist Alan Lomax recorded renowned Irish folk musician Margaret Barry singing ‘My Lagan Love’. Three years later, Ewan MacColl – a folk singer, song collector and political activist from Salford in England – also recorded her performing the song, which was then featured on her debut album, Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady. Margaret Barry was a member of the travelling community in Ireland.

Numerous versions followed over the subsequent decades, with various artists bringing new approaches to the song. Contrasted with performances of more lighthearted Irish fare like ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’ and ‘When Irish Eyes Are Smiling’, the legendary Dusty Springfield sang ‘My Lagan Love’ beautifully on her BBC TV series in 1967. Irish Celtic rock heroes, Horslips, included an instrumental rendition of the song on their acclaimed 1976 LP, Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony, their only UK Top 40 album. Kate Bush’s version was released in 1985, as the second b-side track on the 12” version of her ‘Cloudbusting’ single. Her interpretation uses the familiar slow air, but the lyrics are completely rewritten by Kate’s brother and co-writer John Calder Bush, making it a kind of flip-side female version of the original story.

Kate Bush – music and illustrations/pics

In 1988, Van Morrison joined forces with The Chieftains to release the collaborative album Irish Heartbeat, which included a startling rendition of ‘My Lagan Love’. The album, recorded in Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, reached No.18 on the UK albums chart. The Chieftains revisited the song again on their 2012 album Voice of Ages, recording a version with Lisa Hannigan that has garnered over 1.1 million streams on Spotify.

My Lagan Love - Van Morrison & The Chieftains, on The Late Late Show on RTÉ

It is a song much loved by Ireland’s finest female singers. Maura O’Connell recorded it on her eponymous solo debut album (1983). Mary Black did a version with Phil Coulter in 1986 on the Songs for Ireland TV series hosted by Coulter. Sinéad O’Connor included a rendition of ‘My Lagan Love’ on her 2002 album, Sean-Nós Nua, and Dundalk hit-machines The Corrs also covered the song three years later, on their Irish-themed album Home, which reached No.1 on the Irish albums chart.

In 2010, Celtic Woman released a version of the song on their fourth studio album, Songs From The Heart. Their music video for ‘My Lagan Love’ has since clocked up over 1.7 million views on YouTube.

Hozier – My Lagan Love on Other Voices

Over 118 years after the song was first collected by Herbert Hughes, ‘My Lagan Love’ continues to resonate with artists and audiences around the world. Hozier, one of the country’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, performed a version – additional third verse and all – on Ireland’s longest running music TV series, Other Voices, in 2021.

“I put it on in the kitchen while I made my tea,” the Dublin-born BBC broadcaster, DJ and novelist, Annie Mac Manus, aka Annie Mac, said of Hozier’s version. “It starts with just his voice, undulating and tender, and slowly warm waves of violins and piano wash around his words, until it becomes nearly unbearably emotional. He sings of lullabies and twilight gleams and love being lord of all.

“Somewhere, deep down, I knew I was feeling sad about not knowing when I would be home next. I had acknowledged the sinking feeling whenever I said goodbye to my Mother or Father on the phone. I knew that after doing messy chaotic facetimes with my family that I needed to be quiet for a while. To not say anything at all. But I didn’t know, until listening to Hozier singing ‘My Lagan Love’, that I was homesick…”

As Van Morrison (‘Cry for Home’), U2 (‘A Sort of Homecoming’) and dozens more great Irish artists have attested, home is important – especially, it seems, to Irish people.

Lisa Hannigan: the peerless singer recorded a beautiful rendition of the song with The Chieftains

“I hadn’t really accepted the reality of this until ‘My Lagan Love’ brought everything up and out of me in the inexplicable way that music does,” Annie Mac reflected. Thinking of the devastating impact of Covid-19 and the travel restrictions it imposed on so many, she observed “It’s not the not seeing them. It’s the not knowing when I will see them…”

As so often in music, it all comes down to a four-letter word.

“Home is home,” she concluded. "It calls for us whether we like it or not. It creeps up on us in songs and smells. It tugs at our emotions until it makes us feel sick. And we will travel back when we can, when it is safe, to our families waiting to receive us. Because everything we know about love is wrapped up in home. And love is lord of all.”

As the song says.

Kate Bush recorded and released My Lagan Love as the b-side of the 12" of ‘Cloudbursting’