The 2016 Irish America Hall of Fame marked the upcoming anniversary of Annie Moore’s entrance to the United States with the first-time meeting of the descendants and relatives of Moore, the first person to pass through Ellis Island when it opened January, 1, 1892. Among the family members present was Irish tenor Paul Linehan, who closed out the evening with a final song, “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” a ballad chronicling Moore’s experiences of immigration.
Moore, who was born in County Cork, was only a teenager when she passed through, became a mystery soon after immigrating. Genealogist Megan Smolenyak spent ten years researching Moore, and was the first to discover she had been misidentified several years ago. Her account of this research, including the discovery of her descendants, appears in an article in the April / May issue of Irish America.
“Folks, it is such an honor for us to be here,” Linehan said. “I just met my cousin for the first time ever and there has been a lot of talking. Very important people talked—I am not one of them, but my ancestor was Annie Moore and really it is such a big deal for our family. So thank you, thank you for welcoming her and all of the Irish Americans that came as a result. It’s been a big deal for us, so I am going to finish with this song so thank you for that.”
“Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears”
On the first day of January, 1892
They opened Ellis Island,
And they let the people through
And the first to cross the threshold of that land of hope and fears,
Was Annie Moore from Ireland,
Who was only 15 years
Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it’s not the isle you’ve left behind,
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you’ll never see again,
But the isle of home is always on your mind.
In a little bag she carried
All her dreams and history,
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty
And courage is the passport,
When your old world disappears
But there’s no future in the past when you are 15 years
Isle of hope, isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, isle of fears
But it’s not the isle you’ve left behind,
That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
Isle you’ll never see again,
But the isle of home is always on your mind. ♦
I only just found this article and found it inspiring along with the song sung by Paul Linehan as well as the April/May 2016 article by Megan Smolenyak. I previously corresponded with Megan Smolenyak when I was an Ancestry.com member and ran into dead ends on tracing my Irish ancestors ( grandparents, etc I am not good with computers and am starting to do research again. I would like to subscribe to Irish America. It looks like great publication.. My great grandmother, Catherine Delaney lived in the same neighborhood in lower Manhattan as Annie Moore around the years that Annie Moore did so I relate to the stories my grandmother told of those times.