String Trio Cello,Violin - Level 2 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1213083 Composed by Pete St. John. Arranged by Gary H Arrington. 19th Century,Celtic,Chamber,Folk,Irish,Traditional. 5 pages. Gary Hobart Arrington #810260. Published by Gary Hobart Arrington (A0.1213083). The Fields of Athenry is a song written in 1979 by Pete St. John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation to the Australian penal colony at Botany Bay.