ADD: Dunnes Stores (Sandra Kerr-rec by C Moore)

Subject: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: GUEST,Matt Kavanah
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 11:38 AM

Achairde,

Does anyone have the lyrics to the song Dunnes Stores?

Slan,

Matt

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Also see https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?ThreadID=170216

Subject: Lyr Add: TEN YOUNG WOMEN AND ONE YOUNG MAN
From: GUEST,Jim Carroll
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:45 PM

Enjoy,
TEN YOUNG WOMEN AND ONE YOUNG MAN
By Ewan MacColl

Now pause awhile, my friends, and listen to what I'm going to tell to you
About the events in Dublin City and the girls of the I.D.A.T.U.
Dunnes Store, the branch in Henry Street, is where the trouble all began
That led to the strike, the famous strike, of ten young women and one young man.

That year at the union conference they said we should not compromise
With apartheid and they voted to boycott all South African merchandise;
When Karen Gearon, the Dunnes shop-steward, told her mates about the ban,
They said, "We'll stand by the resolution." Ten young women and one young man.

Now Mary Manning of Kilmainham, a twenty-one-year-old cashier,
Was put to the test the very next morning when she spoke up loud and clear:
"No, I'm afraid I cannot serve you, that grapefruit's South African!
And some of us here are opposed to apartheid." Ten young women and one young man.

Well, what a hell of a hullabaloo, the threats and groans and the angry cries,
The management foaming at the mouth and the suits buzzing round like blue-arse flies;
"You'll sell those goods or be suspended, we'll tolerate no union ban!"
Little did they understand the will of ten young women and one young man

So Mary Manning got the push, this lass of independent mind,
And ten of her workmates came out and joined her there on the picket line.
For days and weeks and months they stood there, persevered and stood their ground,
Proclaiming the will and determination often young women and one young man.

Then here's to the girls of Dublin City who stretched their hands across the sea,
Their action surely is a lesson in workers' solidarity.
And here's to the folk who heeded the boycott, who won't buy Cape and spurn Outspan,
And also the lad who joined the lasses—ten young women and one young man.

Music note: This is the same tune as "The Day of the Fight."

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 02:52 PM

Jim

"Day of the Fight"? Wozzat? Not "Spanish Lady"?

Mind you - Matt may be thinking of Fintan Vallely's song based on "Young Dunne, Old Dunne..." etc.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 04:52 PM

"close your eyes and come with me back to 1984

we'll take a walk down henry st to dunnes department store

the supermarket's busy, the registers make a din'

the groceries go rolling out and the cash comes rolling in."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 05:01 PM

Matt
Verrrrry interesting! Do you have a tune? Where did you hear the song?


Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 05:19 PM

Sorry folks...thanks for the replies...I posted the first verse of the version I'm after...I heard Christy Moore sing it on his Box Set...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: GUEST,Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 02:27 AM

Martin
Adaptation - but not quite the same as Spanish Lady.
'Day of the Fight' was a song written for the Radio Ballad on boxing, 'The Fight Game'.
Matt,
Dunno that one!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: MartinRyan
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 05:01 AM

Found this much online:

CHRISTY MOORE DUNNES STORES LYRICS

close your eyes and come with me back to 1984
we'll take a walk down henry st to dunnes department store
the supermarket's busy, the registers make a din'
the groceries go rolling out and the cash comes rolling in.

Mary Manning is at the checkout and she's trying to keep warm,
When a customer comes up to her with a basket on her arm
The contents of the basket Mary

I can't check out your oranges mrs now won't you bring them back
For they come from South Africa

chorus

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores with StBernard better value beats them all

Am....GAm

Am....GAm

Dm.Am.Dm.Am.

Am..C...E.

CHORUS

F...Am...

Am.G.F.FGAm

Source

Regards

Subject: Lyr Add: DUNNES STORES (Christy Moore)
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 10:18 AM

Close your eyes and come with me back to 1984.
We'll take a walk down Henry Street to Dunnes Department Store.
The supermarket's busy. The registers make a din.
The groceries go rolling out and the cash comes rolling in.

Mary Manning is at the checkout and she's trying to keep warm
When a customer comes up to her with a basket on her arm.
The contents of the basket Mary's future was to shape,
For the label clearly stated "Produce of the Cape".

"I can't check out your oranges, missus. Now, won't you bring them back?
For they come from South Africa where white oppresses black.
I'd have it on my conscience and I couldn't sleep at night
If I helped support a system that denies black peoples' rights.

"Our union says don't handle them. It's the least that we can do.
We fought oppression here for centuries; we'll help them fight it, too."
The managers descended in an avalanche of suits,
And Mary was suspended cos she wouldn't touch the fruits.

CHORUS: Dunnes Stores, Dunnes Stores, Dunnes Stores,
In St Bernard better value beats them all.

Her friends were all behind her and the union gave support,
And they called a strike and their pickets brought all Dunnes stores to a halt.
No one was going to tell the boss what he bought or sold.
These women are only workers. They must do as they are told.

Isn't that just typical of apartheid's cruel law?
It's not just in South Africa the rich trample on the poor.
He wouldn't have a boycott. He couldn't give a tinker's curse.
Doesn't matter how he fills the shelves so long as he lines his purse. CHORUS

The messages came rolling in from all around the world
For such concern and sacrifice and for courage brave and bold.
When fourteen months were over, ten women and a man
Had helped to raise black consciousness all around the land.

Cleary's in O'Connell Street wouldn't sell South African shoes.
Bestman sent all their clothes back. Roche's stores sent back their booze.
Until all South African goods were taken off the shelves in Dunnes,
Mary Manning was down in Henry Street sticking to her guns. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: MartinRyan
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 10:58 AM

Thnks for that, Guest.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 11:06 AM

Aye...answered my own question so I did...that anonymous post was me...I dug out my Christy Moore autobiography One Voice: My Life In Song and sure enough there were the lyrics!

Enjoy one and all

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores
From: MartinRyan
Date: 21 Jun 07 - 11:21 AM

Curiously, I didn't even look in the book - I don't remember noticing the song at the time. Which is odd - given that I recorded the McColl one!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores (Christy Moore)
From: GUEST,christy moore
Date: 05 Jan 18 - 09:37 PM

this song was written by Sandra Kerr....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dunnes Stores (Christy Moore)
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 06 Jan 18 - 04:02 AM

Thanks for that.

Regards