Jim

   Didn't know about this particular take on the 'Connies' attitude to Irishmen speaking English in their company, but I have often been told of the reverse situation, where non-Irish speaking workers would react adversely (in a wagon, for example) to conversations conducted exclusively in Gaelic on the grounds that the offenders must have been speaking (critically) about them! Also heard of Connnies who didn't have English being exploited by subbies who withheld their papers. On a one to one basis, however, I'm told the Connies - the 'Heavy Diggers', were no pussycats!

Donegal men, especially tunnellers, by contrast had a reputation for canniness, diligence, and relative sobriety, probably because they worked in teams, and therefore couldn't afford to indulge loose cannons...

Never heard the expression 'under the lamp' either but I imagine all industries employing casual labour indulged in tax-dodging to some degree; inevitably, of course, to the ultimate detriment of the labourers.

The industry has always been characterised by sharp practice. One labour historian - I think David Brooke, citing a minor British civil engineering firm which was paid a subsistence allowance for the construction of a spur line in the final decade of the 19th century, gave their labour force only a small percentage of it, and used the remainder - a considerable sum, to finance its expansion a contract which elevated it into the 'premier league' of contractors shortly thereafter...