The Green Fields of America is the title of a very old Irish traditional reel, as well as that of one of the most eloquent songs of Irish emigration. It is also the name of a famous Irish American group of traditional musicians, singers, and dancers, which has toured the United States on several occasions sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The Green Fields of America'' captures precisely what the group represents -- the persistence of traditional Irish music and dance in the New World.The opportunity America held out, its “green fields,” attracted millions of rural Irish emigrants since the earliest times. Between 1848 and 1900 alone, an estimated twelve million Irish emigrated to America.Those emigrants brought with them a rich culture forged through centuries of suffering, struggle, and hope.This country provided a new home for this culture, which was revitalized over the years by successive generations of emigrants from the old country. It is also important to realize that, however, these cultural traditions are now as American as they are Irish. New styles and forms developed in the Irish American communities in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia and have been carried back to the old country for decades.

For example, the Bible of Irish musicians on both sides of the Atlantic is Captain Francis O’Neill’s MUSIC OF IRELAND, published in 1903 in Chicago, where he was Commissioner of Fire and Police. Similarly, for a generation, the best makers of the beautiful uilleann pipes of Ireland were the Taylor Brothers of Philadelphia.The brilliant recordings made in New York in the 1920s and 30s of Sligo fiddlers Michael Coleman, James Morrison, and Paddy Killoran forever changed the development of Irish fiddle music in Ireland as well as in America. In the large American cities, musicians from widely separate villages in Ireland came together, musicians who would not have met in the old country.A rich cross fertilization of styles and repertoires was the result.

Ireland’s sons and daughters still emigrate, as they have for over 200 years, and many of its finest artists are found in American cities. Moreover, there is an exciting new development, one that adds new vigor to the back-and- forth quality of Irish American arts. Brilliant young musicians and dancers of Irish ancestry, born and reared in the United States, have chosen to perform within the Irish tradition but with extensions and innovations that delight those devoted to the arts. When the All-Ireland dance and music competitions are held in Ireland, these young Americans of Irish ancestry are always among the winners. Irish enthusiasts take as much pride in the accomplishments of these young cultural relatives as they do their own.

The personnel of The Green Fields of America has varied since the group was founded in 1977 by Mick Moloney and Washington D.C. attorney Dick Shea, but the concept is constant: to show in one major gathering some of Irish America’s foremost artists -- both immigrants and American-born performers.