A Tear and a Smile is the second album by Irish band Tír na nÓg.

Because of this, two editions of the album exist but there was no reissue of the North American version.

On this last one, "Daisy Lady" and "Dante" are taken directly from the first album Tír na nÓg.

The song "Looking Up" was already on the previous album but Leo O'Kelly was not very satisfied by the first version: he and Sonny Condell decided to record a new one, produced by Tony Cox, for A Tear and a Smile.

The Lady I Love which was released as a single in Europe, appears also on the US version of the album, these four songs replacing "Down Day", "Bluebottle Stew", "Hemisphere", and "Goodbye My Love".