Christmas songs can be a bit of a double edge sword. One one hand we say we quickly tire of hearing the same old tunes every year, but on the other hand we find ourselves singing and humming along every time we hear them. And, of course, they must work and put us in the mood for buying things, otherwise shops and department stores wouldn’t spend so much money to play them on their premises.
A new Christmas song, I’m Coming Home, caught the hearts of Irish families and emigrants all across the world when it was first released in 2013. It quickly became a bit hit in Ireland and among the Irish community abroad.
It was dedicated to all those Irish emigrants who had to leave home to find work abroad during the recession and, of course, over the last hundred years.
Now it has a new poignancy with the Covid pandemic making it impossible for many Irish people living abroad to make it home for Christmas. Indeed, many Irish residents are spending a lonely Christmas this year with restrictions making it difficult to visit families and friends. The emergence of the new Omicron strain of Covid makes travel even more uncertain.
The video features messages from the Irish abroad to their families and from families in Ireland to their loved ones across the world. The emotion is getting to many people who are making the video a big success on YouTube.
The song was recorded by the band Jigsaw Jam and Keith O’Brien on Dublin’s Grafton Street among city shoppers.
Shane Davis, lead singer with Jigsaw Jam, told the Irish Echo: “The song focuses on the hundreds of thousands of Irish abroad this Christmas who will not be able to make it home for Christmas, a very poignant and current affair.”
The song remains popular as thousands of Irish people continue to emigrate in search of work. The Government fears a new brain drain but has so far failed to find a way of creating enough jobs to prevent people having to leave.
Have a great Christmas everyone. If you can’t make it home this time, maybe the New Year will bring better times. Stay safe.
