Fiddler's Green

Image: Fiddlers Green Pub, Portaferry by wikimedia

Fiddler's green is an imaginary afterlife, filled with joy and music, a Celtic Elysian Fields.

Narrated by a dying fisherman, the song voices his last wish: "Wrap me up in me oilskins and jumper; no more on the docks I'll be seen." As he bids adieu to his comrades, he hopes for  their reunion "one day in Fiddler's Green."

This is a place "where fishermen go if they don't go to hell." I first heard this song performed live by the Masterless Men in St. John's in 2003, and immediately bought the CD.

Liam Clancy accompanies himself on the concertina, and Barney McKenna, who is either a banjo player who fishes or a fisherman who plays the banjo, sings with the Dubliners.

The Tragically Hip have used the title for a song of their own.