I've been lying low as regards the Mudcat for a wee while, but I'm delighted to see this thread and Larry's follow-up getting so much action!

I don't want any of the following to be construed as a puff-piece, however I'd just like to add a few bits and pieces. Some of you may know that I edit the website "Pay The Reckoning" http://www.paythereckoning.com

where I've taken the opportunity to load up a lot of my original tunes and writings, as well as some stuff I've collected over the years.

I was born in Derrymacash, on the southern shores of Lough Neagh in an area known as "The Montiaghs" (after Mona Tí - land of the turf); my granda had been an eel-man in his early days and many of his "butties" - men like Albert Parkes, Jem McAlinden, Andy Hogan - were fishermen for eels in season and pollans in their season.

Many of my tunes are inspired by the experience of growing up in this area. I was surprised, looking back, just how many tunes I've written with the Lough, its wildlife and its lore as inspiration:

The Wee Lough (a reference to Lough Gullion, a small lake where some Lough Neagh eel fishermen from the Montiaghs also had a base)
Raughlan
Derryadd Bay
The Dabchick
The Dollaghan (a species of trout only found in Lough Neagh)
McGurran's Shore
Albert's Orange Eel
The Hairy Eel
Mick Doran's (Mick was a fisherman of my da's generation who was tragically drowned along with my cousin Seamus Crossey - there won't be their likes again!)
The Sconce

Also some of the stuff I've written or collected in the "Rants and Raves" section of Pay The Reckoning is directly connected with the Lough, or has the Lough as its backdrop - e.g. James Haughian's "Bonny Green Tie" and my own "The Ballad Of Joe Donnelly" and "Liverpool, Be Damned".

Anyway, thanks to Larry for his song. I learned recently that Albert Parkes, one of the oul stagers, a decent man and a great one for the crack, had passed on. I have a tape recording (courtesy of the mudcat's ard mhacha) of him and Jem McAlinden in conversation on a Northern Ireland radio show. It forms the basis for the following which goes to the tune of "The Croppy Boy".

The reference to the tra-doo comes via a mate of mine, Sid Blaney, who wrote a cracking short story some years back set in and around the Lough, called An Trá Dubh (The Dark Shore).

ALBERT'S FAREWELL TO THE LOUGH

The name is Parkes, from the bleak Bay Shore
I've fished the Lough for sixty years or more
I've baited hooks and I've run the lines
And I've lived through bitter and cruel times

I never larned for to write nor read
For books or larning I had no need
I need no map, no plan nor chart
For the coul' Lough water I know by heart

I spent my youth on a bed of straw
Where the flays did nibble and the varmins gnaw
And damn the feeding to grace my plate
There was only purters in the house to ate

And any money I ever gained
Was spent on porter and rum in Kane's
If I had money then I'd spend it free
And all were welcome for to drink with me

Money made, aye and money spent
And body broken, aye and body bent
But boys the crack when we made a haul
Down in McCorry's or the oul' Bay Hall

And orange eels, aye and hairy too
And eels that grunted, boys and eels that crew
And fairy weemen who were heard to cry
That wee Lough Gullion would not run dry

But now there's eels that we cannot sell
The oul' eel-fishing, boys, is gone to hell
You'd make more money signing on the broo
Than you'd ever make from the oul' tra-doo

My name is Parkes from the bleak Bay Shore
I've fished the Lough for sixty years or more
And done no harm, aye and caused no grief
And spurned no man cos of his beliefs

But now my time it is at an end
I'll never venture on the Lough again
I'm setting out for a distant shore
And I'll put my boat out on the Lough no more

Come all you boys from the Bay to Crow
From Derryadd and round to Kinnego
When you are out on the tear in town
Drink a health to Parkes who's buried in the ground


I think a CD of songs and tunes about the Lough would be great idea. There's been a few albums lately which are very local in nature - Gerry Lavery's "A Walk Through O'Hanlon Country" (songs from mid-Armagh) and Padraigin NiUallachain's An Dealg Oir (songs from South-East Ulster) to name but two. It's about time the Lough had its own collection. I'd be more than happy to play a part in such a project, in any small way.

Finally, if there's any way in which I can use Pay The Reckoning to "further the cause" perhaps the agitators could get in touch ... I could, for example, put up a separate page! PM me here or e-mail me at aidan@paythereckoning.com

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All the best!