Isle of Innisfree

For other uses, see Isle of Innisfree (disambiguation).
1950s sheet music front cover of "The Isle of Innisfree". This edition was released to coincide with the song's use as the main theme music of the film The Quiet Man.

The "Isle of Innisfree" is a song composed by Dick Farrelly (Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, born Richard Farrelly), who wrote both the music and lyrics. Farrelly got the inspiration for "Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered, while on a bus journey from his native Kells, County Meath to Dublin. The song was published in 1950 by the Peter Maurice Music Publishing Co.

Farrelly’s "Isle of Innisfree" is a haunting melody with lyrics expressing the longing of an Irish emigrant for his native land. When film director John Ford heard the song, he loved it so much that he chose it as the principal theme of his film The Quiet Man.[1] The composition received no mention in the screen credits. "The Isle of Innisfree" became a worldwide hit for Bing Crosby in 1952 and continues to feature in the repertoires of many artists.

There is a common misconception that the song and the famous poem by W. B. Yeats, "Lake Isle of Innisfree", were written about the same place. Yeats' Innisfree was an uninhabited island in Sligo's Lough Gill, whereas Farrelly's Innisfree represented all of Ireland.[2][3]

The song remains popular and has been recorded by hundreds of artists around the world.

  1. ^ Professor Des MacHale (2004). Picture The Quiet Man. Appletree Press.
  2. ^ Extract from Peter Murphy's interview with Dick Farrelly in July 1990 on RTÉ (Ireland's National Broadcasting Station): "The "Isle of Innisfree" that was in my mind was Ireland, another name for Ireland, and that's something people often get mixed up".
  3. ^ The Sunday Independent, 28 December 1952: "For me, 'The Isle of Innisfree' is simply Ireland, and it was Ireland I had in mind when I wrote this song about an exile's longing for home. The whole song, words and music, was composed in half an hour on that bus. I know that by the time I got to Dublin I had my song, the complete words and music... "Of course, it's not as easy as all that, and sometimes, for instance, I have waited for weeks to get the last line of a song".