Heres a paste of my expanded notes to my video of this ballad at my poetryanimations channel at youtube.

A big big thankyou to all who helped me I couldnt have arived at these notes without your help.

Heres a virtual movie of a recitation of a rather charming nostalgic Irish poem "On the Bromielaw Quay". The author of this traditional poem/ballad is not known. The Broomielaw is in Glasgow. The Famine & Migration
Seasonal Irish workers, especially from Donegal and neighbouring Ulster counties had regularly to and fro'd from Ireland to Scotland prior to 1840, but few observers could have predicted the massive influx that occurred as a result of the Great Hunger of 1845 to 1851.

By 1848, the inflow of Irish into the Broomielaw, Glasgow, was estimated at over 1,000 per week. Having been forced by starvation and poverty to leave their homes and undertake an often hazardous journey by boat, thousands headed towards villages and towns in search of a better life, either in mining, iron production or general labouring.

From a comment posted at the Mudvat discussion forum website......

"I assume the 'harvesters' mentioned in this poem, were the potato harvesters, who used to come across in large numbers each year, just for this harvest.

There is a verse from my childhood which seems to prove this.

To the tune of the Gallant 42nd


Wha' saw the tattie howkers,
Wha' saw them gang awa'?
Wha' saw the tattie howkers,
Marching doon the Broomielaw?
Some of them had bits an' stockin's,
Some of them had nane at a',
Some of them had umberellas
Marching doon the Broomielaw"

Since posting this virtual movie it has been suggested that the author or at least the collector of this poem may have been Irish poet Patrick MacGill (24 December 1889 November 1963) .

Patrick MacGill was an Irish journalist, poet and novelist, known as "The Navvy Poet" because he had worked as a navvy before he began writing.

MacGill was born in Glenties, County Donegal. A statue in his honour is on the bridge where the main street crosses the river in Glenties.

During the First World War, MacGill served with the London Irish Rifles (1/18th Battalion, The London Regiment) and was wounded at the Battle of Loos on 28 October 1915.[1]

MacGill wrote a memoir-type novel called "Children of the Deadend".[citation needed]

In early 2008, a docu-drama starring Stephen Rea was made about the life of Patrick MacGill. One of the film's locations was the boathouse of Edinburgh Canal Society at Edinburgh on the Union Canal, and one of its rowing boats.

Kind Regards

Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2009

"On the Bromielaw Quay.........(On the Broomielaw Quay)

November's wind tonight is raw
And whips the Clyde to foam;
I watch here on the Broomielaw
The harvesters go home.


Oh, luck is theirs, and blest are they
Who cross the sea of Moyle;
To see again at dawning grey
The waters of the Foyle.

To-morrow night on starlit ways
They'll go to a loved door,
And sit with kin by hearths
ablaze
In Rosses or Gweedore.

No welcome warm, no lighted pane,
Now waits me in the West;
And sorrow keener than the rain
Lies heavy on my breast.

Yet longing often draws me where
The boats for Ireland start;
They take an unseen passenger-
My homeless Irish heart.

Like wild geese in their homing flight
These toilers homeward draw,
And leave me lonely in the night
Upon the Broomielaw.


"On the Bromielaw Quay"