BELFAST singer-songwriter Joby Fox has released a new single inspired by the Irish famine and the plight of modern refugees.
Out now, No Home is written from the perspective of a father leading his starving children from their home to embark on a perilous journey by sea in search for a better life.
“It struck me that we the Irish are well-placed to understand the plight of the world’s refugees, as it wasn’t too long ago, we were refugees ourselves," explains the former Bankrobbers and Energy Orchard man, who will be releasing his new album I Once Was a Hawk Now I’m a Dove in May.
And he's not just singing about refugees - he's also helping to keep them safe: Fox set up a search and rescue NGO, Refugee Rescue, in 2016. To date, its vessel MoChara has rescued 17,000 people discovered in distress at sea while fleeing the wars in Syria, Afghanistan, and North Africa.
In 2015, the Belfast artist opened the inaugural United Nations Peace Festival in Hong Kong, and in 2016 he was musical director of the Orchestre des Refugies et Amis, which fused contemporary sounds with traditional tunes from the homelands of migrants and refugees.
