🎶 The Quays of Old Cork
By Seán O’Callaghan – “Songs of Ireland, sung from the shores of Guernsey.”
🌊 A Song About Home You Never Leave Behind
When I first wrote “The Quays of Old Cork”, I was sitting on a sea wall in St Peter Port, looking across the Channel and thinking about another harbour — one a few hundred miles west. There’s something about island light that carries memory differently. It softens it, makes it sing.
The song isn’t just about Cork — it’s about the places we carry long after we’ve left them. For me, those quays were where I first learned music: the banter of dockworkers, the rhythm of boots on cobblestones, the pubs alive with rebel songs and laughter.
Now, living in Guernsey, I feel that same spirit in our harbours and pubs. There’s a kinship between these islands — between the Irish and the Guernsey soul — built on salt, work, and the unshakable love of home.
🎵 The Story Behind the Song
“The Quays of Old Cork” came together one cold winter’s night in Guernsey, after a long evening at the Folk Club. Someone asked me if I ever missed Ireland. I laughed and said, Every time the tide goes out.
That became the heart of the song — a conversation between past and present, between two islands that speak the same language of sea and song. It’s both a farewell and a homecoming.
“Every time the tide goes out, I hear Ireland calling back across the water.”
🪗 Sound & Spirit
Musically, the song borrows from the great Irish folk tradition — inspired by The Dubliners, Planxty, and Christy Moore — but there’s also a quieter influence of island life. You can almost hear the Guernsey wind in the pauses, the rhythm of the tide in the banjo.
The chorus invites everyone in the room to sing along — and most do:
“So raise up your glasses, let the fiddles all play,
We’ll sing of the nights and the break of the day…”
Every time I perform it, I feel Ireland behind me and Guernsey beneath me — and somehow, the two make perfect harmony.
⚓ Why It Matters
“The Quays of Old Cork” isn’t just a song about one place — it’s about belonging anywhere the sea touches. For those of us who’ve left home, who’ve crossed water and found new harbours, it’s a reminder that home is a tide that always returns.
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