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Landing safely on Ireland’s shores marks the origins of one of the world’s most beloved hymns.

Although everyone knows this beautiful, uplifting hymn, Amazing Grace, not many people know its Irish origins.

The haunting hymn Amazing Grace was penned by the anti-slavery advocate John Newton when he landed in Donegal, safe, having survived a shipwreck. His arrival on Irish shores marked the beginning of his conversion to Christianity and the start of a life of good work. He wrote the first verse in Buncrana, County Donegal.

“Up until that point, he was self-described as a wretch. He was involved in the slave trade.

“He was traveling to Liverpool from Africa and because of the trade winds they had a very circuitous route.

“He was caught in a violent storm and found himself crying out for mercy. He thought: ‘what mercy can there be for me, a wretch?’”

The ship managed to make it to safety, but Newton “stepped ashore in Ireland a changed man.”

Even though he remained active in the slave trade for another six years, he later became a staunch opponent of the industry.

“It is extraordinary to think that John Newton’s safe delivery to these shores at Buncrana on that fateful night of April 8, 1748, inspired him to write one of the most well-known and best-loved hymns in the world,” 

Amazing Grace is more than just a song. It is someone’s salvation. As you’re about to find out, it’s a place, too

When it comes to arrivals in Ireland, however, few can match that of John Newton.

Stormy Seas

“At 23, John Newton was a foul-mouthed sailor working in the slave trade. Newton had rejected Christianity and delighted in mocking and criticising people of faith.“

In fact, during his passage back to England from Africa in 1748, Newton was so unpopular with “his crew that the captain blamed him for the violent storm which so nearly claimed their lives”.

And while that storm off Donegal’s coast didn’t take John’s life, it did change it.

Any port in a storm

During the storm that almost took his and his fellow passengers lives, Newton felt utter and complete fear and turned to God for mercy. That mercy came in the shape of Lough Swilly, a mirror of a lake between Inishowen and Fanad peninsulas in County Donegal. It was in Inishowen that the boat was repaired and the crew housed.

Calm after the storm

“I often feel that same sense of peace and “refuge” when I walk along the banks of the lough and gaze out across the water or listen to the waves gently lapping at the shore,” Ruth tells us. “No matter how busy I’ve been, a few moments by Lough Swilly are like taking a deep breath!” But Newton and crew wouldn’t have only been pleased with the surroundings. The care and attention they received at the hands of the locals was something unique. In the intervening years that warmth has not dimmed.

Welcome to Inishowen
Whether it was Lough Swilly, Inishowen or his salvation from the storm, Newton was a new man. From this point on he renounced his work in the slave trade, became a friend and political ally of the abolitionist William Wilberforce and of course, penned Amazing Grace.

So the next time you sing Amazing Grace, spare a thought for John Newton and remember that neither he, nor the song, would be here without the calm of Lough Swilly and the Inishowen Peninsula.

Now that’s a sweet sound.