Search This Blog

Monday, May 23, 2011

Kevin Collins - From An Island To An Island


This is a wonderful singer from Newfoundland and Labrador named Kevin Collins - Irish by descent but Newfoundland born and raised! These 2 videos are of one of his biggest hits - written by Loyola Hearn, the current Canadian Ambassador to Ireland. It was originally written as The Green To The Green but Kevin titled it From An Island To An Island!


Lyrics:


My father left old Ireland, so many years ago
He left his home in Galway, where the green, green shamrocks grow
He met my darling mother on a boat to Newfoundland
And it didn't take him long before, he won her heart and hand

They both came to this island, as happy as could be
To settle down together, and raise a family
They built a little cottage, and started to combine
The green of the shamrock, with the green of the pine

From an island to an island, from the green to the green
They left their homes to settle in a place they never seen
They exchanged the hills of Newfoundland for the ones they left behind
And the green of the shamrock for the green of the pine

As their family grew around them, their eyes shone bright with pride
They'd go to church each Sunday morn' strolling side by side
Each evening 'round the turf-fire to heaven would ascend
The decades of the rosary for all in Ireland

Now the years passed by so quickly, and death we all must face
We laid our loving parents in their final resting place
Yet they taught me to be thankful for this heritage that's mine
The green of the shamrock for the green of the pine

From an island to an island, from the green to the green
They left their homes to settle in a place they never seen
They exchanged the hills of Newfoundland for the ones they left behind
And the green of the shamrock for the green of the pine

And the green of the shamrock for the green of the pine

The Honourable Loyola Hearn PC, MP - the 28th Canadian Ambassador to The People's Republic of Ireland and, like Kevin, a Newfoundland native and composer of this beautiful song