Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs

Subject: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 02:51 PM

There was a thriving coal industry in Arigna,, on the Roscommon/Leitrim border until closure in 1990.
There was plenty of traditional music (and still is) in the area- the great flute player John McKenna worked at Arigna before leaving for New York.
However, I can find no songs at all from any Irish coalfield (I think there was another one in Kilkenny?) There are plenty of Irish-American songs about the Molly Maguires etc and also UK songs of Irish origin- eg 'Johnny Seddon', from Durham, where many Irish worked in that coalfield.
The John McKenna festival hope to present an event at this year's commemorative festival about McKenna and the Arigna mines, so any pointers to such songs would be much appreciated!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,#
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 03:26 PM

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/mckenna.htm

No luck with any songs from the times the mines were open. There was a CD from a few years back of songs inspired by the area and the mines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Mike O'Leary-Johns
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 04:32 PM

Jim a piper I know Neil Mulligan {his Father was from Leitrim }
Collaborated with a Poet from Leitrim . To do a programme of Poetry and music about a Miners Strike in the seventies at amine there.
I cannot recall the poets name .
I am not sure if there was something from that which might help.
I will mail Neil and ask if there is any thing that might help .
They might be aware of songs which might be exist.
Mike

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 04:59 PM

Perhaps 'thriving' is the wrong word. I recall a radio programme that described the miners lying in icy water underground to chip out the coal, and the owners of the mine driving Mercedes.

But coal mining isn't really a *thing* in Ireland. It doesn't have a personality, as it had in England.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 06:56 PM

Expired cows "going to make calf meal above in Roscrea".. that was a song from the forties or fifties or sixties or seventies about a trade that didn't last beyond the nineties. The composer (I can't remember who) lived in the agricultural community where cows were seen unromantically by all but sympathetically by some. The mining community of Arigna would in many cases have been from a similar community, where the reaction {of people who could) to any remarkable event would be to make a song. But agriculture was ingrained in society, mining was not, so the composition of songs would revolve entirely around the chance of a writer, a recipient community, and after that someone to remember that the songs existed. And since Arigna mining lasted for such a short period, perhaps it's not surprising that any songs they made were not recorded or remembered. The last miners will be old now.. is anybody talking to them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: mg
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 07:29 PM

i was surprised to find out that there were mines in the dingle area..which supposedly is why so many from dingle migrated to the butte montana area. you might find some irish-american songs from there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 03:08 AM

Irish coal mining songs are about as rare as East Anglian mountaineering songs.

Now, peat cutting....

Mind you, as with most contemporary folk songs, I was bemused to see MacColl's Schooldays Over, as written for the radio ballad The Big Hewer on a compilation album of "traditional Irish songs." There was the usual John Connolly song on the same album of course...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 04:09 AM

Wot Thompson said.

The West Cork/Kerry mines, incidentally, would have been for copper - and did indeed result in pockets of Irish miners in western USA and Canada. For that matter, some of them in turn would have been Welsh (or Cornish?) - it was a portable trade!


Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 03:23 PM

Thanks for that info, Mike- am at present working on an item about TP Mulligan, so Neillidh knows me & could be a source of info, for sure!
Please let me know of any results & see you at Whitby?

Other contributors a little dismissive of Arigna's 400 year history- the small, primitive mines were part of the Arigna community just as much as farming - it certainly was 'thriving' -- it wouldn't have lasted otherwise. The miners didn't thrive, that's a given, but it was very much part of the local culture for a very long time.... any more ideas welcome- it all helps

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 11:22 AM

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

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 11:58 AM

Thanks Matthew- if you can find anything in McGahern's work, a pointer would be great- have read several of his books but not recently. There was an excellent RTE radio 1 programme about Arigna a few months ago, to which Vincent Woods contributed- think it was in July- the whole hour was devoted to it- 'Sunday Miscellany' which is at 9.05 every Sunday morning

As you say little 'traditional' material in the 'Scars on the Mountain' although that's not to criticise it, just not quite what we are after... it probably doesn't exist

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Feb 16 - 12:52 PM

Jim, an email to librarians in towns located near the places the mines were might turn something up. Also, maybe ask the people who frequent the following Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Arigna/

Also, it could be worth a phone call to

http://www.arignaminingexperience.ie/

Their contact info is on that page.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 06:11 AM

Some info about Tipperary anthracite mining:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballingarry_Coal_Mines

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 07:04 AM

Mining was once a widespread occupation in Ireland - it is inconceivable that there aren't songs about it.
Many of these were probably locally made and didn't travel from their areas, and died when the mines did - it has been our experience that many of these survived locally in one form or another, sometimes in the memory of a single singer, and occasionally in family notebooks - Clare is particularly rich is such songs (though none on mining)
There are mining museums at Allihies, Cork (copper mining) and at Castlecomber in Kilkenny.
May be of some use
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 18 Feb 16 - 01:03 PM

Thanks Jim and all who have helped. I am in no doubt that there WERE mining songs in Ireland, although the industry was never on the scale of that in UK, and it always had a rural aspect- there are great photos from Arigna of earlier days, all very rural, if a little blighted by the relics of industry- interesting though!
I lived in East Kent in the 80s, and recall the view of Tilmanstone Colliery near Deal, with fields of apple blossom behind- an amazing sight- don't think any songs survive from there either?
The survival of much of the Co Durham and Scottish repertoire may well be due to collectors in those intensely industrial areas since WW2.
So as far as I'm aware, the equivalent never happened in Ireland, where such concentrated industry simply never existed anyway.
So it seems a whole tranche of industrial song has been totally lost, if it ever existed!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 18 Feb 16 - 02:45 PM

I think Sam Henry collected at least one song about lead mining in the Glenravel area of north Antrim - if it's felt to be relevant I'll hunt it out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Feb 16 - 03:40 PM

I'd be interested to see that, John.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 05:14 AM

Yes, thanks John- sounds like a unique example, but we live in hope!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 05:41 AM

Much of the Irish repertoire remains to be 'mined'
It's been our experience in Clare over the last thirty odd years that we only scratched the surface (puns intended)
We have found many aspects of Irish life recorded in locally made songs (the same is the case in parts of Britain).
One old singers told us a couple of years ago that "if a man farted in Church, somebody made a song about it".
I'm convinced that, as research into social history becomes more popular, more songs will emerge - this kind of work is really a book full of blank pages.
It might be worth examining Tom Munnelly's massive collection of field recordings at The Folklore Department at U.C.D. - largely untouched.
Concentrating on areas that had mines might well turn up something.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 07:36 AM

John Moulden- you mentioned a mining song from the North Antrim area(were there coalmines there?). I mentioned in my very first post a song collected in Durham 'Johnny Seddon' which is a come-all-ye song about the death of a miner. The late Betty & Norman MacDonald did a fine version on a CD some years back.
The song was collected from a collier (Thomas Mitchell) of Irish descent in Chopwell, Co Durham in 1953.
However, Karl Dallas, in his 1974 book 'Songs of Toil' says...

'Sam Henry collected a fuller version.... from Mrs Sara Morrow of Broughshane, Co Antrim, who called it 'My handsome collier lad'

- is this the song you mean, John?- you mentioned Sam Henry...

'Johnny Seddon' does not seem to be on the Mudcat lyrics list, but it seems was recorded by Jez Lowe 30 years ago

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 08:28 AM

The Blantyre Explosion (of course Scots) was recorded from Joghn Maguire by Robin Morton and can be found of volume two of Folksongs Sung in Ulster.
I'm pretty sure that Johnny Seddon was recorded from a source singer by Cathal McConnell but I could be wrong about that
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 19 Feb 16 - 11:48 AM

There was indeed a major coalmine in Kilkeny, just outside the town of Castlecomer where I was borm, my father and other relatives worked there, one or two even died there. It was also the richest source of black Marble as mentioned in the song Carrickfergus and much of Kilkenny city's archttecture is built of black marble. Oddly though, I don't know of any Irish coal mining songs.As you say plenty of American and Englih ones. but I will make some enquiries

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Feb 16 - 01:27 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 19 May 16 - 09:17 AM

Well we didn't get anywhere re these songs- aiming at an event at the forthcoming John Mckenna Festival- at Arigna on 12 June- 3pm.
There are songs from the US, Britain and Oz, plenty of tunes but no songs--and i told my pal Ed Pickford about this lack of material- he produced several within a couple of weeks- what a man.
There was copper/barytes 'mining' (more like quarrying really) in the part of West Cork where I used to live but no songs.

Did Ewan MacColl collect in Ireland?- even if he did, the industrial base would have been so much less important musically than in UK that maybe he'd struggle to find anything vaguely industrial even then? Seamus Ennis seems to have concentrated mainly on the music.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 04 Jun 17 - 01:08 PM

Well, a year later, with thanks to all your constructive comments, we went ahead with the event at the Arigna Mining Experience last June with plenty of local music but no local songs- except some written by that amazing Ed Pickford man from Sunderland.
You can see it on youtube under John McKenna Festival at Arigna or something like that.
It was a highly enjoyable event with inputfrom Janet Weatherstone, Andy Redican and Charlie McGettigan and if anyone has found any Irish mining songs in the past year we're doing it again next Sunday 11 June at 3pm so come & sing it for us!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 04 Jun 17 - 05:48 PM

Andy Irvine wrote A Prince among Men;

A gold watch and chain inscribed James Doyle
Never seemed much reward for a life of such toil
But I keep his lamp burning and his old union card
And his bones rest here in this sunlit graveyard.

Only a miner killed under the ground
Only a miner and one more is found
Killed by accident no one can tell
Your mining's all over, poor miner, farewell.

It's a good song, but there are no direct references to Ireland. The words of the chorus draw on Poor Miner's Farewell (Aunt Molly Jackson's 1932 variant of John Wallace Crawford's "Only A Miner Killed" of 1879) printed in the Red Song Book, Workers Library Publishers of New York, 1933.

http://jopiepopie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/only-miner-1927-only-hobo-1963.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 09 Jun 17 - 12:25 PM

Plenty of singers for the event at Arigna Mining Experience on Sunday 11 June at 3pm- not sure how many songs will be Irish, but that's not the point is it? All contributions equally welcome!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 08:27 AM

There were planty of Irishmen working in mines over in Britain.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 10 Jun 17 - 04:09 PM

that's quite so McGrath- the Irish, Welsh and Cornish were glad to leave the horrors of 19th century Ireland for work in Britain, although often were simply used by the mineowners to break strikes, undercut wages etc.
One of the worst was Lord Londonderry- his statue was removed from the Market Square in Durham for refurbishment of the square a couple of years back- the man was no better than an aristocratic slavedriver and thug- why the HELL was it put back?
The incomers were innocent victims of unscrupulous capitalists at that time, but in later years became more appreciated contributors to the mining workforce, insofar as the miners got any credit at all from the British ruling class. It seems there are many more Irish flavoured (tunes, phrases) mining songs in Britain than in Ireland- maybe because of the fact that few song collectors ever looked for them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 15 May 18 - 07:36 AM

Just to say that the annual event wiich is really a homage to miners and their songs will happen again in June as part of the John McKenna
TRADITIONAL FESTIVAL at Drumkeeran, Co Leitrim on 8-10 June.

It will be at the Arigna Mining Museum, on the site of Dernavoggy mine, between Drumkeeran and Drumshanbo at 3pm on Sunday 10 June. It will last till about 5pm and consist of songs, poems readings & stories with relevance to the industry, wherever in the world it happened.

COAL IS A NATION, and all are welcome to contribute- it's a very informal event & we'll happily 'go with the flow! We had a fine crowd and plenty of contributors last year, John McKenna did work there before heading off to make his amazing 78s in New York.
Double CD of all 44 recordings still available from the John McKenna Society....
For a flavour of the 2016 Arigna event,see John McKenna Traditional' on Youtube

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 15 May 18 - 07:41 AM

There will also be plenty of the traditional music which is still a feature of the Leitrim/Roscommon border-

the museum is in a lovely location, overlooking Lough Allen & the Iron Mountains, a mile or two from McKenna's cottage, where a warm welcome and a teapot awaits if you can find your way there!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Knockroe
Date: 15 May 18 - 09:07 AM

Check out "Hard Times in ‘Comer’s Mines" song by Andy Irvine from CD "Precious Heroes" Andy Irvine & Luke Plumb.

About Nixie Boran who fought for the rights of the coalminers in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny in the 1930s

CD can be purchased via Andy's website:

http://www.andyirvine.com/albums/Precious-Heroes.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 15 May 18 - 09:54 AM

Like everyone else, they are welcome to turn up and give us a song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Iains
Date: 15 May 18 - 01:48 PM

It is surprising the copper mining industry produced no appreciable songs. Snowdonia and the West of Ireland both had a prolific mining history, going back to prehistory in the latter case(on Mount Gabriel, outside Schull) Both the Sheepshead and Beara penninsulas had many copper mines scattered along their length and the entire output was shipped to South Wales for smelting. Allihies employed up to 1300 people. The Dereenlomane mine between Durrus and Balledehob started initially as a copper mine but later the Barytes became more important. This mine finally closed in the 1920's. Many townlands had mines and many others had trial workings for example Coomkeen outside Durrus, and Derryclogher in the Borlin Valley between Ballylickey and Kilgarven. Maybe the totally different technique of mining between coal and base metal accounts for the difference in song output. The workforce for metal mining would be more spread out as several processes occur between winning the ore and shipping it out, whereas coal was largely a pick and shovel job, straight into a tub and off to market. I have only been down one coal mine(Big Pit in S. Wales) but I have been in many of the copper mines in North Wales. I found the mining museum at Allihies a disappointment, not even any ore samples to be seen.(but having prospected for a major mining company maybe my expectations are too high) I hope it is a work in progress because the mining history of the area deserves telling.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 16 May 18 - 03:34 AM

The nearest thing to an Irish copper-mining song is probably Paddy Grabers "Brittania Mine " - there's a thread around here somewhere...

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 16 May 18 - 05:39 AM

Am sure there WERE copper mining songs, it's just that no-one looked for them & the industry in Ireland is now so long gone that I wonder if even direct memories remain- the demise of the Irish coal industry is more recent- the vestiges of song apparent in this thread maybe just demonstrates how grateful we should be for the song collectors in UK in earlier days. Many early UK collectors didn't regard industrial song as proper folk songs & maybe Irish collectors followed the same rules?

Funny that the Schull/Ballydehob mines should come up here!

I lived for eleven lovely years at Caherolickane, with a view of Mt Gabriel out of my window. Indeed there was a barytes mine/quarry about 200 yards away which acted as a (rather dangerous) water supply which we changed as soon as we could!!

I'll certainly check out the 'Britannia Mine' song- thanks Martin...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Iains
Date: 17 May 18 - 05:27 AM

Thanks Martin.
I finally found a song about copper mining. It took me several hours to find the book it was in. "The Berehaven Copper Mines by RA Williams under the umbrella of the Northern Mines Research society.

THO OLD BEREHAVEN MINE
Come all you old Berehaven Boys
Who toil both night and day
I will sing for you a verse or two
If you will attention pay
It is about this cruel mismanagement
We had from time to time
Which caused many a good man and miner
To leave the old Berehaven Mine

Twas opened by four Wicklow men
Again you'll find I am true
But then the old Berehaven Boys
Of mining little knew
And when it progressed rapidly
With prospects fair indeed
It was opened by the Puxleys
And managed by John Reed

We cannot praise the owners
I'll tell you the reason why
They caused us to eat Indian meal
And kept our wages low
They spent their chimes in foreign climes
On choicest of fine wines
And their orders were to starve us out
In the old Berehaven mines

It was in the year 1815
As I did judge to write
There was copper in this good old mine
Which at times brought delight
Then they sent for Harry Pascoe
That reprobate so prime
To become a second captain
In the old Berehaven Mine

He longed to be promoted
And kept running to and fro
At length he was made manager
And John Reed was forced to go
When Crease he became manager
Kealogue he did lay low
He invented new machinery
And let the water flow
And when we used to walk about
In abject poverty
Which caused many to roam
Far from their home
Across the deep blue sea.

The song contains a mix of fact and fiction. I could find no tune.
John Lavellin Puxley(1772-1856) initiated the mining at Allihies;
He is “Copper John” mentioned in the book by Daphne Du Maurier, Hungry Hill.
The mine far exceeded the output of any other Irish mine at the time. 297k tons(1812-191 3)
It is said that William Smith(the father of British Geology) had a conversation with Puxley about his untamed estates in the west of Ireland where he suggested he(Puxley) look well to the underground potential. There is some documentation to support this story.
In another account Colonel Hall raised a forcible regiment containing many Cornish miners. He was sent to the SW of Ireland in 1796 to prevent a French Amada landing. Many of the miners recognised previous grovelling for ore. Hall subsequently opened 10 copper mines.

The four Wicklow men is a reference to 4 yachtsmen who could see the malachite staining on the cliffs near the Doneen mine.(not the high rocky slopes of the cliffs cliffs, as per the song)
John Reed was a Cornish mining captain as was Pascoe.
After a strike Pascoe took over as head captain and Reed Left. Reed was accompanied by many miners for the first part of his journey(a measure of their appreciation). Pascoe was disliked intensely.
Captain Crace(Crease) did a lot of development work on the Kealogue and Doneen mines. He was hired presumably as a result of adverts in the mining journal in 1871,2 and 3 for a competent mining engineer.


https://motherjonescork.com/2014/06/29/from-allihies-to-butte-montana/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 17 May 18 - 03:38 PM

Very interesting indeed - it would be great to hear it sung again. Will have a think about a possible tune.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 17 May 18 - 03:59 PM

The tune used for "The Cruise of the Calabar" would work, methinks.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Iains
Date: 17 May 18 - 05:12 PM

Thanks Martin. I have a few feelers out for a tune. I suspect the Allihies migration to Butte Montana should have generated a few songs but as yet I have found nothing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 09 Oct 19 - 03:35 PM

as promised on another thread, here's a song from the set Ed Pickford wrote about the Arigna mines.
NB the mining area was centred on Arigna, but there were others in the Iron Mountains, on the far side of Lough Allen.

Jim McGourty was one miner who retired in 1989 after 50 years in various local mines (the chorus is a list of some of these)& his family are still in the Drumshanbo area- this is Ed's song as I recall it....

JIM McGOURTY RIP

War clouds covered Europe in the year of thirty-nine
When young Jim McGourty first went to the mine
Slievenakilla coalface, a wild bird in a cage
Five bob days and six day weeks and fourteen years of age.

chorus... Leyden's, Dernavoggy, Noone and Christie mine
Jim McGourty worked them all through fifty years of time
Fifty years of sweat and toil but now he's flying free
Remember Jim McGourty, McGourty RIP

The seam was fifteen inches, the road was five foot high
Jim took out the hutches*, but only the rich could buy,
Cut and drew the coal each day & cursed his aching back,
Threw the coal against the screens to separate the slack... chorus

Walking home in winter, mens' clothes would often freeze
But Jim was young and healthy- only old men wheeze
Soon he was a married man, with Florence for a wife
Kids to carry on his name and ease his working life.... chorus
his
When work was just a memory, out in the air and sun
Jim thought of his working life, fifty seasons long
Fifty years as man and boy, he dug Arigna's coal
Goodnight Jim McGourty, goodnight God rest your soul.... chorus
c. Ed Pickford            

* hutches- hand drawn wagons- no ponies in Arigna, but equivalent in Durham was the tub (Pony drawn mainly)   

this is as it is in my head just now & may not be what Ed wrote, but I don't think it's in print anywhere, so if you want to pursue it, you can contact him via his website. He never specified a tune to me, but I've found that a varant of the old Irish weepy 'A mother's love's a blssing' suits me.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Oct 19 - 10:17 PM

For those who may be interested, below is my transcription of the Andy Irvine song mentioned above. We used it in a themed concert on mining. Any corrections welcomed.

HARD TIMES IN COMER’S MINES
(Andy Irvine)

In 1930 my daddy, said he
Stay out of the mines, take a warning from me
With dust you’ll be choked and a pauper you’ll be
And you’ll wheeze like the bagpipes of Patsy Touhey

Refrain:
It’s hard times in Comer’s mines
Hard times we know

To dig out the coal you must lie on your side
For the seam it is just 18 inches high
Eight hours a day for pie in the sky
And your pay so low and your expenses so high

Refrain

Nixie Boran was invited to go
To a union congress held in Moscow
But the Department of Foreign Affairs it said no
For Red Russia we’ll never allow
But Nixie stowed away on a ship
And he landed in France and continued his trip
Says he, ‘In old Ireland we must get a grip
‘And we’ll form a union for miners now’

Refrain

The huts that we live in are built very poor
And the holes in the roof let the rain in, go leor
To keep ourselves warm you can be very sure
With mud we have plastered the walls
The rain washes it off all over the floor
My wife she sits weeping, what can she do more
On a wet winter’s night how the children they bawl
And the captain in comfort at Luxury Hall

Refrain

The money we earn, well it is very slight
And we pay for our tools which doesn’t seem right
The denonat-ers   and the gel-ig-nite
The candles, the fuses, the fittings
The rent for our hut is a half a crown out
And we pay for the new church 5 bob a shout
At the end of the week you can have little doubt
We are sick of these wrongs for the slimmest of pickings

Refrain
We go to the strike without further delay
For a small increase in our miserable wage
And coal for our families for which we would pay
The cost of its production
So Nixie our demands conveyed
We were ignored, no offers were made
And the church it stepped up its holy crusade
For our militant union’s total destruction

Refrain

Peadar O’Donnell he entered the fray
And he went to the bakers in Dublin, they say
Two car-loads of bread were delivered that day
And supporters doled out more
Street meetings in Dublin were held every night
Urging support for the miners on strike
But after 6 weeks we were losing the fight
And we wondered how long we could hold out for

Refrain

On Sundays at mass our bold parish priest
Compared our union to the mark of the beast
And some of our neighbours they shared his belief
That Nixie was Satan invested
They tried to stop him attending at mass
And they stationed themselves to not let him pass
But we all stood beside them like snakes in the grass
And Nixie and family went in unmolested

Refrain

We found it too hard to endure all this hate
From the might of the church and the power of the state
Our only desire was to better the fate
Of the men who worked in the mine
So we joined up with Larkin in thirty-three
And the coal mine owners at last did agree
Our victory was small, but t’was still victory
For we felt that we’d struck a blow for mankind

Refrain

Well, I’ve finished me song and I’ll go away
But now in conclusion I’d just like to pay
Homage to Nixie, there’s much more to say
‘Bout the times that came to pass
John Fitzgerald, Jimmie and Tom
Walsh was their surname but now they are gone
And all those brave men that their names may live on
For they fought for the rights of the working class

[Refrain x2]

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,have any turned up yet?
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 05:40 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Oct 23 - 03:25 PM

Dark song.
To make the conversation a little darker, I've just read that all the lovely granite countertops are bringing back the once forgotten miners' disease, silicosis. These countertops are made not of mined granite (or whatever stone) but of a consolidated stone which is then cut with fast-whirring blades; you should damp down those blades with a spray of water, but the poor sods who are being hired to do it now don't have any water sprays, and the stone dust is entering their lungs and killing them young.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: GUEST,have any turned up yet?
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 05:40 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Irish Coal mining songs
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Oct 23 - 03:25 PM

Dark song.
To make the conversation a little darker, I've just read that all the lovely granite countertops are bringing back the once forgotten miners' disease, silicosis. These countertops are made not of mined granite (or whatever stone) but of a consolidated stone which is then cut with fast-whirring blades; you should damp down those blades with a spray of water, but the poor sods who are being hired to do it now don't have any water sprays, and the stone dust is entering their lungs and killing them young.