"The Voyage" is a very famous modern Irish classic song by the Irish musician, singer-songwriter Johnny Duhan. Unsure of his own vocal capabilities, he offered it to the Irish singer Christy Moore who recorded a version in 1989 that became the definitive and most well-known version of the song. Johnny Duhan went on to record his own version for his similarly titled album The Voyage that was released much later in 2005. The song has been interpreted by a great number of artists and translated into other languages
The idea to write on the family theme grew organically out of Johnny Duhan's earlier excavations of family history. Measuring the early struggles of his own marriage against his parents' rocky relationship, he first wrote a song called "Trying to Get the Balance Right", and this led on to reflections on the whole institution of marriage and child rearing.
"The Voyage" tackles the struggle of marriage and expresses its familial difficulties. Despite his own personal difficulties, Duhan felt he would write in this song about the more positive side of the marriage adventure with deep conviction and sincerity.
He says the chorus of the song came to him out the blue, affecting him tremendously, mainly because he felt that it got to the nub of what family life is ultimately about - the children.
"Life is an ocean, love is a boat In troubled waters it keeps us afloat, When we started the voyage There was just me and you, Now look around us, We have our own crew".