It's funny sometimes the things you remember. One of the Billy Kay programmes was called "From The Gorbals To Gweedore", and it was about the links between the Donegal Irish and Glasgow. I think it might have been that programme which mentioned the "Mickey Dams". I still have some excerpts from it on VHS video tape because it featured the Jackson brothers Billy and George {RIP}, from "Contraband" and "Ossian", visiting Gweedore where there family had originally come from, and having a session with Mairead Mooney of "Altan" and some of her relatives. I distinctly remember an interview with someone who had worked the "Mickey Dams", telling stories about some of the characters who had worked there - including "Two-Shift" Mulholland, and "The Hashie Dan", who competed against a mechanical digging machine, not unsurprisingly, unsuccessfully.
Apologies if this has strayed a bit far from the original post, but it's not entirely irrelevant.