Source: Tuam Herald, June 30, 2001

At a time when a Rock version of The Fields of Athenry is at No.1 in the Dance music charts and in the Pop Top 10 lanky six feet songwriter Pete St. John is ten feet tall having also been given the freedom of Athenry this week. “It was a memorable moment for me as I got to carry the mace and was given the town’s seal of office at the Athenry Heritage Centre and then I did a Bill Clinton style walkabout in the town.” said Pete. As the songwriter had not visited the area which gave him his biggest hit for almost five years he said he was “delighted and amazed” at the expansion of Athenry in recent times.

“At the time I wrote the song you could drive through Athenry and almost by the time the wiper blades had swished across the windscreen from one side to the other you had gone through the town. But that’s not the situation anymore and I’m delighted at the way the whole area has developed.” he said. Pete said it a great honour for him to have got the freedom of Athenry this week and he was loud in his praise for Geraldine O’Connor and all at the Athenry Heritage Centre. Pete St. John says he was influenced to write the song after he had read about the Great Famine in a book at the NUI library in Galway.

He was reading this book which was written in Irish about how the poor people tried to steal this Indian corn from the warehouses and those who were caught by the Police were deported to Botany Bay but how did the fields of Athenry end up as the title of the song? “I was driving out from Galway after reading about the famine when I notice this wide sweep of fields along the road outside Athenry and as they were different to many of the other small stone walled fields around the West of Ireland this gave me the idea for the song.” he said. According to Pete the walls of Athenry was almost as important an influence as the fields were for part of the song.

“I also got the idea for using the line… by a lonely prison wall, from the walled town of Athenry so the walls of Athenry were an inspiration too,” he added. The song which has become an anthem for Galway sports fans has also sold millions of copies for different artists around the world and while Pete St. John is pleased with it’s commercial success he says all this has been overshadowed by his delight at getting the freedom of Athenry this week.