"Cumberland Gap"

Arguably the hardest part of the Scots-Irish migration was the initial parting. It was so poignant and so prominent in Scots-Irish lives that eminent Appalachian musicologist Fiona Ritchie says that “the Scots and Irish have made an art of the farewell song.” It wasn’t easy to leave but they were determined to make a better life for themselves in America. Much of the later Irish-American diasporic narrative revolves around leaving hardship and oppression in the old country to make a comfortable and dignified life in America. Songs like "Cumberland Gap" curse and praise the wanderlust that brought them further and further into the wilderness.

The Scots thought that moving to Ulster would be the final journey, but after deciding to leave for America they had many more journeys ahead of them. First, they had to leave their families, friends, and communities and walk or ride to the nearest port city. There they had to find affordable lodging while they searched for passage on a ship. These liminal spaces were full of social parasites looking to profit off the desperation and naiveté of the migrants. Many emigrants sold themselves into labour and indentured servitude in order to pay for passage. The crossing was perilous and they faced storms, shipwreck, disease, starvation, drownings, and piracy in order to arrive in America.

Many emigrants did not expect to return to Ireland. The cost of the journey to America, combined with the lack of opportunity at home, meant that leaving was a permanent action. Although not exiles by politics, they were exiles by circumstance. They probably spent the rest of their lives wandering the hills and valleys of their birthplace in their minds. Much of the folk music of the British Isles is about a particular place; after leaving, these songs likely sustained the immigrants in their new home.