YOU MIGHT EASY KNOW A DOFFER You might easy know a doffer When she comes into town With her long yellow hair And her pickers hanging down With her rubber tied before her And her scraper in her hand You will easy know a doffer For she'll always get a man Oh, she'll always get a man Oh, she'll always get a man You will easy know a doffer For she'll always get a man You might easy know a weaver When she comes into town With her old greasy hair And her scissors hanging down With a shawl around her shoulders And a shuttle in her hand You will easy know a weaver For she'll never get a man No, she'll never get a man No, she'll never get a man You will easy know a weaver For she'll never get a man. Note: There was a distinct class rivalry between various elements of the weaving trade. From Songs of Belfast, Hammond http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/northern_ireland/ni_8/audio_2.shtml In the 1930's we had about fifty to sixty thousand people employed in the linen industry, directly employed in the linen industry, a very important time. Most of the spinning mills where in North Belfast and in West Belfast. In North Belfast you had Brookfield mill, you had Lindsey Thompsons, you had Edenderry, you had Ewarts and on the Falls you had Greeves, and you had Ross Brothers and Kennedys. In East Belfast we had the Strand mill. Well you were a dogsbody, you know, gofer, as I say, go for this and go for that and do this and do that. And you had to scrub your spinners stand out and it was half the length of this street and usually dried it with bags, you know sacking and it was really a competition as to who had the best doffer. Every Monday when you started in the mill you had to have a clean slip, you called it a slip or overall and then you had your rubber tied round you, kind of a rubbery apron affair and you had your pickers on and what you called a bandcord tied round that again. The pickers was for if any of the ends broke and this flyer was flying round, so fine you couldn't find it and you had to pick it out with this picker, get the end to tie it up again and let it fly on. So that's why they say about the doffer and the picker in her hand you see.
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