The Hills Of Glenswilly

Michael McGinley, the writer of The Hills Of Glenswilly, embarked the Invercargill bound for New Zealand in 1878. The Invercardill, named after the city in New Zealand, was one of the six clippers built in 1874 in commission of the Albion Shipping Company by the Glasgow shipbuilder Robert Duncan. The vessel was designed specifically for emigration trade with New Zealand and was able to carry 350 to 400 emigrants to their new homes within 90 days.
Apart from The Hills Of Glenswilly Michael also wrote An Emigrant's Farewell during the crossing. Apparently the 26 years old Donegal man from Breenagh was inspired by either the monotonous journey or homesickness. Most likely the latter prevailed, because after having lived in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand for merely two years he returned to Ireland. He became a farmer and pub owner in Strabane, County Tyrone, and joined the Fenian Movement and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). In his capacity of nationalist McGinley wrote the song The Drumboe Martyrs, an in memoriam for four men who were executed during the Civil War, when he was 71 years old.

Lord Leitrim, as mentioned in the third verse, was the notorious William Sydney Clements. From 1854 until his violent death in 1878 Sydney Clements, who earned a reputation as ruthless landlord and pitiless evictor, was the Third Earl of Leitrim. After a series of evictions the tenants turned against him and rumours that he had molested a young servant girl set the powder keg off. Lord Leitrim was killed by an angry mob on 2 April 1878 and in spite of thorough investigations no one was ever arrested for this assasination.

The phrase a chuisle geal mo chroídhe is a term of endearment which can be translated as sparkling pulse of my heart. It's a contraction of the two common expressions a chuisle mo chroí, meaning pulse of my heart but more often used in the figurative sense as darling (unless of course you're a cardiologist), and geal mo choíde, usually translated as jewel of my heart.
The phrase most likely refers to Hessie Moore, a 20 year old fellow passenger of Michael on board the Invercardill, in whose legacy the original poem was rediscovered in 1992. In contrast with McGinley Hessie Moore stayed in New Zealand.

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The Hills Of Glenswilly

Attention pay, my countrymen, and hear my native news
Although my song is sorrowful, I hope you'll me excuse
I left my peaceful residence a foreign land to see
And I bid farewell to Donegal, likewise to Glenswilly

Some stalwart men around me stood, each comrade loyal and true
And as I grasped each well-known hand to bid a last adieu
I said, My fellow countrymen, I hope you'll soon be free
To raise the flag more proudly o'er the hills of Glenswilly

It is these cruel English laws, they curse our native isle
Must Irishmen always live like slaves or else die in exile?
There's not a man to strike a blow or to keep down tyranny
Since Lord Leitrim like a dog was shot not far from Glenswilly

No more beside the sycamore I'll hear the blackbird sing
No more to meet the blithe cuckoo to welcome back the spring
No more I'll plough your fertile fields, a chuisle geal mo chroídhe
On foreign soil I'm doomed to toil far, far from Glenswilly

God bless you, dark old Donegal, my own dear native land
In dreams I've often seen your hills and your towering mountains grand
But the last three thousand miles of life separates these hills from me
I'm a poor forlorn exile cast far, far from Glenswilly
I'm a poor forlorn exile cast far, far from Glenswilly

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