As Malcolm says above, there are two versions of the song in A.L. Lloyd's Come All Ye Bold Miners (1978 edition, pp 179-181)

THE BLANTYRE EXPLOSION (I)

By Clyde's bonny banks where I sadly did wander,
Among the pit-heaps as evening drew nigh,
I spied a fair maiden all dressed in deep mourning,
A-weeping and wailing with many a sigh.

I stepped up beside her and thus I addressed her:
'Pray tell me, fair maiden, of your trouble and pain.'
Sobbing and sighing, at last she did answer:
'Johnny Murphy, kind sir, was my true lover's name.

'Twenty-one years of age, full of youth and good-looking,
To work down the mines from High Blantyre he came.
The wedding was fixed, all the guests was invited.
That calm summer evening young Johnny was slain.

'The explosion was heard, all the women and children
With pale anxious faces they haste to the mine.
When the truth was made known, the hills rang with their moaning
Three hundred and ten young miners were slain.'

Now husbands and wives and sweethearts and brothers,
That Blantyre explosion they'll never forget.
And all you young miners that hear my sad story,
Shed a tear for the victims who're laid to their rest.


THE BLANTYRE EXPLOSION (I). Melody and fragmentary text from R. Greening, Glasgow (February 1951). Additional text from Mrs Cosgrove, of Newtongrange, Midlothian (11 May, 1951). The disaster happened at Messrs William Dixon's colliery, High Blantyre, near Glasgow, 22 October 1877. Of 233 men and boys working in the pit at the time, 207 were killed. The management were felt to be much to blame, their economies resulting in poor ventilation and little inspection. Naked lights were used almost throughout the colliery. The miners were aware of the unusual danger but, said one, 'We durst not make any complaint because we would get no redress', and another declared: 'Had I not been long idle previous to going to the colliery, and the rent becoming due, I would not have gone down that pit.' It took the eloquence of the miners' leader, Alexander McDonald, to dissuade the indignant pitmen from violence against the owners and officials. The song has lasted well, and spread to America where Samuel Bayard collected a version from a Pennsylvania singer, Mrs Jennie Craven. The Blantyre Explosion is a sprig off the same (ultimately Irish) tree as Lost Jimmy Whalen, a persistent ballad in the American North-East.

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The text in Ewan MacColl's Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland (page 15) is only slightly different. MacColl says he got his text and melody from Lloyd's Come All Ye Bold Miners.

THE BLANTYRE EXPLOSION (MacColl)

By Clyde's bonny banks where I sadly did wander
Among the pit heaps as evening drew nigh,
I spied a young woman all dressed in deep mourning,
A-weeping and wailing with many a sigh.
I stepped up beside her and thus I addressed her:
"Pray tell the cause of your trouble and pain."
Weeping and sighing, at last she made answer:
"Johnny Murphy, kind sir, was my true lover's name.

"Twenty-one years of age, full of youth and good looking,
To work down the mines of High Blantyre he came.
The wedding was fixed, all the guests were invited
That calm summer evening young Johnny was slain.
The explosion was heard, all the women and children
With pale anxious faces they haste to the mine.
When the truth was made known, the hills rang with their mourning,
Three-hundred-and-ten young miners were slain.

Now husbands and wives and sweethearts and brothers,
That Blantyre explosion they'll never forget;
And all you young miners that hear my sad story,
Shed a tear for the victims who're laid to their rest.