There is a lot of confusion about the Garth Brooks song Ireland. Most people mistakenly (and logically) believe that the song is about the nation of Ireland, but in fact it is about a small town in Texas. While Brooks is a native Oklahoman, he is a keen buff of Texas history.
Ireland, Texas was founded in 1841 by Seamus O’Finn after he fled Ireland because of the potato famine. The town flourished. However, Seamus found that the Texan accent was fully developed, and the town’s name was consistently mispronounced. After O’Finn died in 1911 the town council voted to change the name to fit the residents’ pronunciation–to Arlen, Texas.
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