Glad you enjoy the song ClairBear. I'm not sure what you mean when you say I appear not to know that the song has been unearthed (though I appreciate the pun -- that both the whale and the song were "unearthed").

I first heard the song as it was sung by my good friends Steve Colby and John Good, who form the fine Celtic group Oceans Apart, and I have their CD "Tethered to the Foam." John was born and grew up not far from Cardiff (or, for HuwG, Caerdydd) and he actually sent me the lyrics some time ago. Sad to say, I've carelessly lost them. I could ask John again to send them to me and try to swallow my embarrassment but hoped to avoid that. I should add that while I can make out many of the lyrics, there are a few words that I'm not sure about, especially some of the Grangetown/Cardiff place names that are mentioned.

BUT, even John was not sure about the details of the the momentous event that caused Frank Hennessey to write the song, and that is what I'm most interested in. In fact, the reasons I'm trying to unearth (sorry!) the story are twofold: 1) to pass the story on to John and Steve so that they can enlighten audiences about the events when they perform the song live (I think familiarity with the events would increase audience enjoyment of the song); 2) For my own edification (I like to know what I'm singing about). Anyway, 'Catters have never failed me before when I've raised questions on the Forum, so I'm confident that the information will turn up here at some point.

Reiver 2