Ellis Island - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

Ellis Island - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Pb2ia28QM 

Pictural history of Ellis Island and its first immigrant, Annie Moore from Ireland.

Music: Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, sung by Brian Dunphy.

 

Written by  Brendan Graham:

 lyricist, songwriter and novelist from County Tipperary, Ireland... other famous compositions include, The Voice, and You Raise Me Up.

 

 

On the first day of January,
Eighteen ninety-two,
They opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
Of that Isle of hope and tears,
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was all of fifteen years.

 

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you've left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.

 

In her little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years

 

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you've left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.

 

[Instrumental]

When they closed down Ellis Island
In nineteen fourty-three,
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto it's piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're fifteen years.

 

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you've left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you've left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

One of the most heartbreaking songs about emigration is “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears.”  It tells the story of the first person to enter America through Ellis Island - a young Irish girl named Annie Moore and talks about leaving everything behind and starting over in a new place.  It compares Ireland - the isle of tears - and the Isle of Manhattan - isle of hope.

 

Ellis Island - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Pictural history of Ellis Island and its first immigrant, Annie Moore from Ireland. Music: Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, sung by Brian Dunphy. For those interested ...

 

 

In a little bag she carried
All her past and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years

According to the historical records kept by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc, the song takes a few liberties.  Annie is actually seventeen, according to their records, and she wasn't traveling alone.  She had her two younger brothers, Anthony and Philip, with her and the three children were meeting their parents in New York, who had come before them ("Annie Moore"). 

Ellis Island in 1905
By A. Coeffler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

When they closed down Ellis Island
In nineteen forty-three,
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto its piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're fifteen years.

Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
But it's not the isle you left behind.
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the isle of home is always on your mind.
The isle of home is always on your mind.

Many covers of this song feature a solo singer throughout most of the song, but have a choir join on the final chorus, the musical accompaniment swelling to a chilling climax, giving the impression of the 17 million people who joined Annie Moore, and the many more who didn't make it as far as Ellis Island.

Works Cited
Graham, Brendan. "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears."

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. "Annie Moore: First Immigrant Through Ellis Island." Web. 05 Apr. 2016. 

 

 

 

Contemporary illustration of Annie Moore

Annie Moore (immigrant)

 

Anna "Annie" Moore (April 24, 1874 – December 6, 1924) was an Irish émigré who was the first immigrant to the United States to pass through federal immigrant inspection at the Ellis Island station in New York Harbor. Bronze statues of Moore, created by Irish sculptor Jeanne Rynhart, are located at Cobh in Ireland and Ellis Island.

Immigration

Moore arrived from County Cork, Ireland, aboard the Guion Line steamship Nevada in 1892. Her brothers, Anthony and Philip, who journeyed with her, had just turned 15 and 12, respectively.  As the first person to pass inspection at the newly opened facility, she was presented with an American $10 gold piece from an American official.

Family

She was fifteen years old and was accompanied by her two younger brothers, Anthony and Philip. Their parents had come to America in 1888 from County Cork, Ireland, and were living in Manhattan, New York City when they were re-united with their children 4 years later.

(Moore's parents, Matthew and Julia, had come to the United States in 1888 and were living at 32 Monroe Street in Manhattan. )

 

Four million people left Ireland and emigrated to America from 1820 - 1920 via the Port of New York. They saw America as 'the land of hope' with the prospect of a brighter future with freedom and greater opportunities to provide for their families and loved ones.

 

Annie married a son of German Catholic immigrants, Joseph Augustus Schayer (1876–1960), a salesman at Manhattan's Fulton Fish Market, with whom she had about eleven children. She died of heart failure on December 6, 1924  at age 50  and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens. Her previously unmarked grave was identified in August 2006.  On October 11, 2008, a dedication ceremony was held at Calvary which celebrated the unveiling of a marker for her grave,  a Celtic Cross made of Irish Blue Limestone. She had 11 children of whom five survived to adulthood, and three of them had children. The rest all died before the age of three.