Origin The Blackleg Miner

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: GUEST,Len Wallace
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 01:28 AM

Just a short added historical note. The time of the miners' strikes in "the black year" of 1844 was also the time of the Chartist movement in England and the great commotion amongst the working class for the vote, better conditions and shorter working hours.

Len Wallace

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: meself
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 11:09 AM

Jeez, all my old sparring partners are showing up on this thread. C'mon, Len, put down that d*mned acc*rdi*n and sign up on the Good Ship Mudcat .... !

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: GUEST,Mike McKenna Jr
Date: 26 Oct 19 - 10:39 PM

I think this might help to add context to the word Yahie:

Many Gaelic speakers from rural parts of the island moved to the industrial areas to work in the coal mines. Some would stay in lodgings during the week and go home at the weekends.

On Friday they would announce, "Tha sinn a' dol dhachaidh," meaning "We are going home." (Some were also regarded by the collectivised miners as "blacklegs," or scabs.) Hence, the disparaging term "the Yahie miners," "yahie" being a phonetic rendering of "dhachaidh."

Sources below!

The Beaton Institute, Cape Breton University
http://www.beatoninstitutemusic.ca/mining/oran-a-mheinneadair.html

*A Cape Breton Gaelic song called 'Mo Dhachaidh' or 'My Home'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvJGYjxhTZE

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 07:52 AM

It's a grand song, but I could never sing it, because of the verse about tying a line across a path, "To stretch the neck and break the spine, of the dirty blackleg miner"
Firstly it's too violent for my taste, and secondly it definitely feels "modern", and to my mind points to it having been either an invention of, or an amplification by, a later author than generally supposed.

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: GUEST,KarenH
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 08:39 AM

chartism and the vote: votes for women was never part of the official demands of the chartists.

Subject: RE: Origin The Blackleg Miner
From: Iains
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 09:22 AM

Apologies if the link below has already been posted

https://uk.local.county-durham.narkive.com/ntoSbxun/black-leg-miner