Hymns | Christmas | 86 86 86 and refrain

1.
Good Christian folk in Erin's isle,
Let naught your hearts affray,
For Jesu Christ, our Saviour dear,
Was born upon this day,
To bring unto a weary world
The Light to guide our way. 

Refrain
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

2.
By hawthorn pale and holly green,
The redbreast hymns the dawn;
The wren abides within the brake
Upon this blessèd morn;
And all the woodland creatures know
That Christ the Lord is born.

Refrain

3.
On Shannon's bank the Salmon Wise
Doth swim in waters deep;
The lore of ages old he bears
Through pool and ford to keep;
Yet Wisdom's very Fount this night
Lies where the cattle sleep.

Refrain

4.
Saint Brigid kept her sacred flame
Against the winter's cold,
A beacon through the darkened years,
As ancient tales have told;
Yet brighter burns the Christ-child's light
Than all those fires of gold.

Refrain

5.
The antlered hart upon the hill,
The fox within his den,
The blackbird in the leafless thorn,
The curlew in the fen,
Bear witness to the Holy Child
Who cometh unto men.

Refrain

6.
The ancient sídhe beneath the mound,
The rowan by the well,
The stories elders whispered low
In hall and hermit's cell;
All yield before the Star whose light
O'er Bethlehem doth dwell.

Refrain

7.
Then praise the Lord of earth and sea,
Whom angel hosts adore,
Whose glory filleth hill and glen,
And every wind-swept shore;
And all the saints of Erin sing
His praise for evermore.

Refrain

Reflection

Christmas comes to us in a particular place. The story begins in Bethlehem, but we hear it wherever we find ourselves: beside familiar rivers, among winter fields, in churches and homes where generations have sung of the child born among the cattle.

In A Carol of Erin at Christmastide, I wanted to bring that proclamation into the landscape of Ireland. Hawthorn and holly, the wren and the redbreast, the Shannon and the windswept shore become part of our response to Christ’s birth. The world into which he comes is alive with creatures, memories and stories. Here, too, we can sing tidings of comfort and joy.

At the heart of the carol is an encounter between the Salmon of Wisdom and the child in the manger:

Yet Wisdom’s very Fount this night
Lies where the cattle sleep.

There is something wonderfully disarming about those lines. We seek wisdom through learning, experience and the stories handed down to us. We treasure what others have discovered before us. Yet at Christmas, divine Wisdom comes among us as a baby: dependent upon another’s arms, needing warmth, shelter and care.

To draw near to him, we must be willing to bend down beside a manger. We must make room for the possibility that God will meet us through someone whose needs interrupt our own arrangements.

The flame associated with Saint Brigid brings another image of faithful keeping: a light tended through darkness, a warmth preserved and shared. The carol places that beloved image beside the light of Christ. It invites us to consider how the lights we tend in our own lives might bear witness to him. A welcome offered, a meal shared, a patient presence beside someone who is weary—each can become a small act of keeping the light.

The older stories have their place here too. The sídhe, the rowan and the well evoke an imagination attentive to mystery, to places where the ordinary world seems to open upon something beyond itself. In the carol, those stories yield before the star over Bethlehem. The wonder they awaken finds its focus in this particular child, born into human history and held in human hands.

And the world receiving him is weary. That word in the opening verse matters. Christmas may find us grieving, unwell, anxious or simply worn down by the demands of living. The invitation to rejoice reaches us there. We can approach the manger carrying all that remains difficult and unresolved.

The Light to guide our way is a promise we can carry into such a Christmas. Guidance may come as enough light for the next step: the courage to ask for help, the grace to accept care, the strength to offer kindness when our own reserves are low.

By the final verse, hill and glen and shore have become places of praise. The carol gives us words to join that praise from the place where we stand, with the lives we actually have.

Christ is born into this beloved, troubled world. May we recognise his light among us, tend it faithfully, and follow where it leads.

Hymn information

First line:Good Christian folk in Erin’s isle
Text: Michael McFarland Campbell
Metre: 86 86 86 and refrain
Tune: God rest ye merry gentlemen
Theme: Christmas
NDH-0379

© Michael McFarland Campbell. 2026.
Permission granted for local church or parish use with attribution. Not for commercial reproduction.