The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159258 Message #3773112
Posted By: Matthew Edwards
16-Feb-16 - 11:22 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
Guest# mentioned a recent CD of songs and music inspired by the 400 years of mining at Arigna; it is Scars on the Mountain by Colin Beggan and Frank Molloy, but it doesn't seem to include any traditional material as such.
Vincent Woods quotes his own poem in an Irish Times article about the mines, which perhaps illustrates just why the story has almost vanished from the record:
"What's history, he said
I'll tell you what it is
History is the other man's story
The man who owned the pit
Not the story of the likes of us
Who worked in it"
I'm sure that John McGahern, who is mentioned in the Irish Times article, also wrote about the mines somewhere - I'll see if I can find any more.
Matthew