The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5905   Message #36427
Posted By: C. Adams
30-Aug-98 - 01:36 AM
Thread Name: Songs about Molly Maguires
Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR THE MOLLY MAGUIRES^^
The Irish Rovers have a song called The Lament for the Molly Maguires on their Shores of Americay album. My best shot at the words is below. Also there was a movie about the Molly Maguires (I think The Molly Maguires was the title) that starred Richard Harris.

Chorus
Sucking up the coal dust into your lungs
Underneath the hills where there is no sun
Trying to make a living on a dollar a day
Digging coal in Pennsylvan-i-a

We left old Ireland, we left our homes
Across the ocean we had to roam
With five (can't get this word-gusoons?)and a scrawny wife
Trying to make some kind of a life

Chorus

But the Welsh and the English, the Germans, the Dutch
Controlled the mines and they didn't leave much
A tar paper shanty no Irish apply
The Mollys started blowing all the mines sky-high

Chorus

A straw boss shot and an owner disappears
Many's the Welshman's lost his ears
A company store burned to the ground
The Molly Maguires were spreading all around

Chorus

Black Jack Kehoe looked after his pack
Even honest Irish that wouldn't fight back
Jack and his boys put fear in their souls
The Molly Maguires were controlling the coals

Chorus

But terror ends as it had begun
Jack McFarland, he ended the run
He (left?) as a Molly and he brought their fate
After many years he ended the hate

Chorus