Musical Accompaniment to be played softly in the background while reading
The Leaving Of Liverpool - Clancy Brothers
The Port of Liverpool, at the foot of a gang plank.
April 1, 1865
16 year old Irish son, Danny O’Phalen, stands with his mother and his only luggage, a canvas satchel with a leather strap, hanging from his shoulder.
“Mum, I must gooo now.”
“Now, Danny, mind your mum! You’ll go when I am ready.”
She grabbed his cheeks with her hands and pulled his face to hers.
They were both silent and staring solemnly. They both knew this might be the last time they saw each other.
Mum broke the silence first.
“Now, you write to me once a week and don’t you miss church. Your first prayer each Sunday better be for your mum!”
She ended that sentence with a slight smile and a wink.
She hugged him tight and buried her nose in his golden hair.
Every moment they spent together from his birth flashed before her eyes and then the tears started flowing. She was brought back to the nights when he was first born, rocking him to sleep on her bosom, that same golden hair resting just under her nose as it was now.
“Love you mum, but I got to goooo now. The pipes are calling me.”
“Be good my Danny boy, and don’t be too trusting of anyone.”
She continued,
“If you can, come and visit your mum.
Come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or all the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
O Danny Boy, O Danny Boy, I love you so
If you come back and I am dead, as dead I well may be, come and find the place where I am lying, and kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
But I shall hear, though soft you tread above me
And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be
And you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.”
Like so many Irish mothers of that era, she knew that she very well may be six feet under when her Danny boy returned to Ireland.
And go he did.
Her only child turned his back to her and walked up the gangplank. He turned at the top, waved and smiled, and then he disappeared below decks.
Her walk home was the longest of her life.
Now, on October 15, 2021, Danny O’Phalen’s great-great grandson sits in the New World, writing the opening words of a biography about his great-great grandfather’s adult life, which started with this most precious, tender and final moment with his mother.
