With Love from Belfast’s Robert Boake captures Atlantic calm on new folk single Connemara
Music Review | 11th March, 2026
There’s something quietly special about With Love from Belfast, the musical project of Belfast songwriter Robert Boake. Over the past while he’s built a reputation for crafting intimate folk songs that feel deeply rooted in the small things - family moments, shifting landscapes, memory, and simply being present in the world around you.
His latest single Connemara leans fully into that spirit. It’s the kind of song that feels like it arrived exactly where it needed to be - born barefoot on a beach, captured on a phone, and later gently brought to life in a garden studio back home in Belfast.
Musically, Connemara
is beautifully stripped back. There’s no rush here - just delicate finger-picking on guitar and Boake’s raw, heartfelt vocal carrying the weight of the moment. The track unfolds slowly, like a deep breath after a long walk by the sea, before opening into a soft bridge built around the line flow like a river,
adding another layer of calm reflection.
The story behind the song is as organic as the music itself. Boake first wrote it while sitting on the sand at Mannin Bay, just outside Clifden in the wild beauty of Connemara. Playing around with open tunings and looking out toward the Atlantic, the song slowly formed as the landscape around him worked its way into the lyrics.
As Boake remembers it:
Connemara effortlessly took shape one sunny morning on Mannin Bay beach just outside Clifden. I'd been tinkering away with some beautiful open tunings and the structure came together as descriptions of the landscape around me fell into place. A group of friendly people came and stood on the sand next to me and clapped, thanked me and chatted to me when I stopped playing. My kids were playing at the water with my wife and I remember being so happy to have this new song recorded on my phone.
Later, I added the ‘flow like a river’ bridge section because I wanted to capture the total ease of that day, that sense of complete calm and presence that I felt while visiting this place. Although I had to leave the next day, I promised myself that I would return soon.
Back in Ballyhackamore in East Belfast, the track was recorded, mixed, and mastered in Boake’s own garden studio, a space that mirrors the way he approaches music: slowly, thoughtfully, and always connected to real experiences.
The result is a song that feels less like a performance and more like a memory - a quiet moment by the Atlantic, carried home and carefully preserved in sound.
The single, Connemara, is available through all streaming platforms.
Photo Credit: Love From Belfast
