“Skye Boat Song” is a song that has come up in my life in a variety of ways throughout the years. It has been a source of comfort in my life, even before I knew the history of the song. It has been a key part of my learning and appreciation of Celtic culture.
I first heard the song on a CD of Celtic music that I got
when I was in high school. I used to listen to music while on the bus ride to
school, and high school was the time when I started to learn about my Irish
heritage and Celtic culture as a whole, and my favorite way to do this was
through music.
When I was in my senior year of high school, I went to see
Celtic Thunder in concert for the first time. The first act was their “Heritage” show, which
was a collection of traditional Celtic music and modern takes on a classical
sound. I was excited, but I had no idea what the setlist was going to be. “Skye
Boat Song” was one of George Donaldson’s songs. I teared up a bit when the
bagpipes began to play. It was a powerful moment in the show.
In 2024, I began watching “Outlander” and was pleasantly
surprised when “Skye Boat Song” was the show’s theme song. It is part of what
drew me in initially, and being an Outlander fan has been such a cool part of
my life (hello, being on stage at New York Comic Con with other Outlander cosplayers).
I was so curious about the history behind the song, so I did
a blog post after researching the song’s story and history. I saw ties to the
song and the stories within “Outlander” and have grown such an amazing
appreciation for the song after knowing its origins and backstory. (This is
actually why I decided to do that blog series. I wanted to learn more about
songs so I could appreciate them even more deeply.)
Seeing how my appreciation of this song has grown over the
years has been so rewarding. I love learning backstories and histories of
songs, and this has added so much to this song.