Lyr Req: Doomsday in the Afternoon (J McCreadie)

Subject: Once it was the Travellers...
From: GUEST,FP
Date: 14 Feb 00 - 03:23 PM

Does anyone know the lyrics to that song whose chorus goes: What you don't realise/ Or refuse to understand/ Is that once it was the travellers/ Who had all the land. ? I'd be interested to know who wrote it as well. Thanks.

Subject: Lyr Add: DOOMSDAY IN THE AFTERNOON (J McCreadie)
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Feb 00 - 05:20 PM

Doomsday In The Afternoon
(Words & music John McCreadie)

Chorus:

What you don't realise or refuse to understand
That once it was the Travellers who had all the land
You can move them on from lay-bys
You can chase them from your toon
The Travellers will be with us till doomsday In the afternoon

They travelled the country aroond, each season had its place
Then the walls and ditches came, behind each a hostile face
Like the natives of the Amerikays piece by piece their land was lost
The settled folk made their own laws to say what they did was just

There's been meetings in Milngavie and everyone agrees
Keep it well away from houses and screen it well with trees
And in case it should bring doon the price of surrounding property
Put the Travellers' site anywhere you like - as long as it's no' near me

The Queen welcomed Belle at the Palace, in her local she can't get a half
We don't serve dirty tinks in here, we soon see that lot aff
In her local supermarket she heard two women say
I don't know what the Queen was thinkin', gi'in' a tink a medal onyway

The Travellers were at Auschwitz, there was Travellers at Belsen too
The Nazis treated the Travellers the same way as the Jews
But history turns a blind eye and remembers what it will
And for the Travelling People there is no Israel

Scotland

As sung by Arthur Johnstone

[1986:] Travellers will aye exist to the end o' time, and you'll never get them to change their ways, and you'll never get rid o' Tinkers. They'll be there till doomsday in the afternoon. (Belle Stewart, quoted in MacColl/Seeger, Doomsday xii)

[1989:] The travelling people are probably the most misunderstood section of the community. This song relates true events in the travellers' history. The title comes from Belle Stewart who, when asked the question "When would the travellers cease to wander?", replied "Doomsday - in the afternoon!" (Notes Arthur Johnstone, 'North By North')

[1990:] John's local Milngavie paper reported meetings to protest [against] council plans for a local campsite for travelling people. John linked this to stories told by traveller Belle Stewart of Blairgowrie about prejudice she had encountered. [...] When you think about travellers, remember that there are several different groups travelling the roads of Scotland. There are the Romany descendants of nomadic North Indian metal-working tribes who travelled across Europe to reach Scotland four or five hundred years ago. They claimed to have come from Egypt, so were called Egyptians or Gypsies for short. There were broken clans from the 1745 Rebellion, and families forced from their homes in the glens of Sutherland and elsewhere in the North and West during the 19th century Clearances, and freed serfs from much earlier times. Then there are the travelling Show people, who claim a very different descent. All of these groups occasionally make their home on vacant sites in Glasgow. One part of Shettleston is labelled on the map Little Egypt. In their long visit the travellers have experienced much hostility from the settled peoples, who must themselves at some earlier date have been travellers in order to arrive here. And as the travellers picked over the leavings of the earlier arrivals to find and salvage metal, they also found and preserved songs and stories, so that much of Scotland's heritage of song has been recovered by folklorists from traveller singers like Jeannie Robertson and the Stewarts of Blair. (McVicar, One Singer One Song 136)
HEY JOE!!The Paste Worked!

(line breaks added by a Joe clone... it looks OK when you paste across.. but you still have to add the line breaks to make it stay that way)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: GUEST,FP
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 07:44 AM

Wow! Thanks very much Sorcha. Accompanying notes as well...great!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: InOBU
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:49 AM

God Bless you for that post Sorcha:
As you may or may not know, the patron saint of Pavees (travellers) is Sorcha Dorcha (hence the name of my band), so on behalf of the forgoten and unseen,
Nyees tuka, shaya, hai baxtali.
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:59 AM

I forgot to highlight the URL when I pasted it, can't remember if it has the tune or not,but I could prob'ly find it again. Larry, does "Dorcha" have a meaning? "Sorcha" is bright in Gaelic. Went back last nite and read all the posts on Bobbly Sands, and have read your thread on the Romany--fascinating stuff. Keep up the good work!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: InOBU
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:47 PM

Hi Sorcha:
Dorcha means Dark, or of dark, as Sorcha means of light. So, Sorcha Dorcha is the Pavee version of Kali Maria, Black Mary, the Vlax Roma Saint/Goddess, who we carried out of India, combining Shiva the goddess of destruction and decay, with Ganesh (the very happy looking blue eliphant) who is the god of creation. Many years ago, I knew a wee girl from Donnegal who was working in a chipper in Kerry, who we called Sorcha Dorcha, as she was the image of Saint Sarah. She had jet black hair and startlingly white skin and bright blue eyes.
My bands web page is linked in on of bbcs resources, either profiles or the photopages, I forget, but if you go to the web site, you can see the image of the Pavee Sorcha I made for our band, combining eliments of Irish and Romani art.
Thanks again
Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 12:49 PM

Cool! Kinda describes my personality, too. I can get real Manic/Depressive!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once it was the Travellers...
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 06:08 PM

Sorcha, I think you got your contribution of 14 Feb from here. I recognise it because I put it there. Henry, the owner of mysongbook, has kindly agreed to incorporate my collection of bits and pieces on folk songs with his song collection. One of these days I'll put a link in the Mudcat link list, but as we've only got to G it didn't seem worthwhile yet. Glad you found it! - Susanne