Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)

Subject: Lyr Req: 'O'Shaughnessy's Lament' by A. Finnan
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 02:27 PM

Caught a snippet of this song on the Folkroots music cable channel a day or so ago... It's off Aengus Finnans cd "North Wind"

Anybody got lyrics?

Tune?

An MP3??

Subject: Lyr Add: O'SHAUGHNESSY'S LAMENT (Aengus Finnan)
From: MMario
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 02:30 PM

O'SHAUGHNESSY'S LAMENT

Oh the sun is setting low o'er Cobalt and the mines,
And I've come here again to touch and read the lines
Of your name here on the stone, no longer flesh and bone.
Oh, my sweet Rosella May, I miss you dearly.

Oh, when I was but a lad, I signed on with the crew
For a life below the earth; what more was I to do?
But as the years went by, you'd wait along the path.
I soon lived for your smile and to hear your tender laugh.

Well we courted long and dear while McCarthy was your name,
And when you untied your hair, all the flowers were put to shame,
So the fellas spruced me up for the first time in my life.
How I felt like I was someone when you became my wife!

For you took this hard-rock man so poor in grace and charms
And gave to me a world lying in your arms.
Soon from the sound of heartbeats, twins the doctor said,
But their birth this house left empty and I alone in bed.

Oh we pitmen live in fear of the price that we might pay,
To never come back up or see the light of day,
But ne'er a one did warn me "a life might cave in too."
Sacred heart, that happened when God from me took you.

So I'll chip away my days, deep beneath the ground,
Pickin' at the rocks where silver's to be found.
But oh it's all for naught and I'd throw it all away
If I could have you near and hold you one more day.

For the sun is setting low o'er Cobalt and the mines,
And I've come here again to touch and read the lines
Of your name here on the stone, no longer flesh and bone.
Oh, my sweet Rosella May, I miss you dearly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'O'Shaughnessy's Lament' by A. Finnan
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 02:31 PM

That's it! Ta Mmario!!!!!

Now all I need is the tune...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'O'Shaughnessy's Lament' by A. Finnan
From: Marion
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 02:37 PM

I've just PMed Clinton with an offer to share the tune by phone.

It's a wonderful song, I think Aengus' best ever. It's worth the price of his new Cd just for this song.

Marion

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'O'Shaughnessy's Lament' by A. Finnan
From: Marion
Date: 26 Mar 03 - 05:59 PM

If you just caught a snippet, Clinton, you probably haven't heard the story behind this song. He was inspired to write it when he visited a graveyard in Cobalt and found the O'Shaughnessy family grave. The young wife and twins had died the day of the their birth, and the husband had died many years later.

I like songs that are truth-based, part of the reason I favour this song.

Marion

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)
From: GUEST,Tinker from Chicago
Date: 05 Sep 13 - 11:42 AM

Seamus Kennedy does a very dramatic, mostly a cappella version of this song that he has Americanized, changing Cobalt to Scranton, "hard rock man" to "hard coal man" and silver to anthracite.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)
From: GUEST,Ann Keating
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 07:46 PM

This was my great grandfather & grandmother.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 10:26 PM

https://billiongraves.com/grave/Rosella-May-OShaughnessy/17789831

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 25 Jul 16 - 09:06 AM

I made the changes with Aengus' permission.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: O'Shaughnessy's Lament (Aengus Finnan)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 17 - 06:04 PM

Mine too! My dad was Robert Thomas O'Shaughnessy, son of Thomas James O'Shaughnessy, Son of Martin Roderick O'Shaughnessy.