Spancil Hill

This song is sung by a man who longs for his home in Spancill Hill, County Clare, his friends and the love he left there.

Spancil Hill is located in Muckinish townland, parish of Clooney, Bunratty Upper barony, County Clare, Ireland, just outside Ennis on the road to Tulla.

[9] The musician Martin Moylan, who played at the fair, was probably the man who is listed in the above Griffith's Valuation as living in the adjoining townland of Knockaluskraun.

In failing health, he wrote the poem in memory of the hometown he would not live to see again, and posted it to his young nephew in Ireland.

The rendition of the late singer/songwriter Robbie McMahon, who died in 2012 at the age of eighty-six, is widely regarded as the definitive version of Spancil Hill.

[11] The best known version of the song is that sung by the Dubliners and Christy Moore, which is highly abbreviated and makes a number of changes to the lyrics – for example renaming the protagonist "Johnny" instead of "Mike", and describing his love as daughter of a farmer instead of the local ranger.

[12] The below version is the one sung by Robert McMahon which is considered to be closest to Michael Considine's original poem.