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. Dick 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., now part of the EMI group.
Farrelly’s "Isle of Innisfree" is a beautiful 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" - Quote from, Picture The Quiet Man, by Des MacHale, Appletree Press, 2004. 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 enrich the repertoires of many artists; it endures in the hearts of many as one of the great songs of Ireland.
There is a common misconception that the song and the famous poem by W. B. Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" were written about the same place. However, while Yeats' Innisfree was an uninhabited island in Sligo's Lough Gill, Farrelly's Innisfree represented all of Ireland.
"The "Isle of Innisfree" that was in my mind was Ireland, another name for Ireland, and that's something people often get mixed up".
..."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".
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"Isle of Innisfree" is the principal musical theme of the film, The Quiet Man (1952). It is used in Steven Spielberg's film E.T. (1982) when the famous kissing scene between John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man is featured. The melody is also included in the soundtracks of the films, Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005).
The song was also featured in the RTÉ Radio Arts Programme, "Rattlebag", as one of the top 75 Irish songs of all time in a series entitled, "The Story Behind The Songs". Des MacHale (writer and mathematician) and Dick Farrelly's son Gerard (musician) were contributors on the programme. There is also a BBC Northern Ireland television series, "Brian Kennedy on Song", in which "Isle of Innisfree" is featured and discussed.
There is a fascinating and in-depth chapter on "Richard Farrelly and The Isle of Innisfree" in the book, "Picture The Quiet Man", by Professor Des MacHale, published by Appletree Press.
"It is one of the finest and most beautiful melodies ever written, ranking in the opinion of many, right beside Danny Boy and no greater praise is possible. But its appeal is also timeless and international, expressing as it does the trauma of separation from one's birthplace and the extasy of returning to the physical soil from which one is sprung... But it is the sheer unanswerable beauty of the melody of Richard Farrelly's The Isle of Innisfree that makes the greatest impact and dwells so deeply in the memory. Here is music dripping with emotion, lush texture, brimming with nostalgia, and fitting so perfectly into the action of The Quiet Man that it could have been written with the movie in mind. No wonder John Ford jumped on it and named the village of Innisfree in its honour".
"Isle of Innisfree" has been recorded by hundreds of artists worldwide - most notably: Finbar Wright of The Irish Tenors,"The Quiet Man" Soundtrack CD - (featuring The Dublin Screen Orchestra), Celtic Woman, Tommy Fleming, Bing Crosby, Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly - (Legacy of a Quiet Man CD), RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Val Doonican, Sean Tyrell, The Cafe Orchestra, Phil Coulter, Joe Loss, Anne Shelton, Vera Lynn, Connie Francis, Eamonn Cambell, Norrie Paramor & His Orchestra, James McNally, Finbar Furey, Paddy Reilly, Frank Patterson, Daniel O’Donnell, Diarmuid O’Leary & The Bards, Joseph Locke, Vera Lynn, Charlie Landsborough, Geraldo & His Orchestra, Bridie Gallagher, James Galway, John McNally, Jimmy Young, Victor Young & His Singing Strings, Carmel Quinn, The Irish Tenors, Dublin City Ramblers, Tony Kenny, Alec Finn, Victor Sylvester, Brian Kennedy and Sean Dunphy to mention but a few.
Semprini, piano with rhythm accompaniment recorded it as the third song of the medley "Dancing to the piano (No. 18) - Part 1" along with "Here in My Heart" and "Half as Much". It was released by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10394.
The "Isle of Innisfree" and "Seolta Bána" both Dick Farrelly compositions, were performed by Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly (Dick Farrelly's son) for Irish Actress Maureen O'Hara at her induction into the Irish America Hall of Fame at the JFK Heritage Centre in New Ross, County Wexford, July 2011.