Lyr ADD: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)

Subject: Shipyard Slips
From: dec
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 07:38 AM

Hi to all, the Furey Brothers had a song on one of their albums, the song is called "Shipyard Slips". Does anyone have the lyrics for this song? Thanks for any help, Dec

---

Click for related thread

Subject: Lyr Add: SHIPYARD SLIPS (David Wilde)^^
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:19 PM

Dec, we had a discussion on the exact lyrics here. As the words were badly formatted in that thread, I'll post them again:

SHIPYARD SLIPS
(David Wilde)

Chorus:
And I served me time with the iron men
And I've known good times and work a-plenty
But there's no work now in these troubled times
And the shipyard slips they're lying empty

From Belfast town I'm on me way
On a ship that was built for the cruellest(?) trade
I leave me friends and the land where I was born
And I won't come back till me fortune is made

Farewell me father, my mother fair
Old age has laid its hand all on you
You loved me well and you never fail
It's leaving your side my heart will rue

I promised to write when I settled down
To ease your mind, God I know ye'll worry
Think of the times when I return
But don't count the days and time it will hurry

I'll remember the mountains, the fresh north air
I'll remember the girls with their friendly stare
I will think of the city and the friends that I have there
And I hope me love she will send me a smile

I'm going away to look for work
But I live for the day of my returning
To a job at home and peace of mind
For the Belfast people I'll always be yearning

I'm still not convinced it is 'tourest' trade in verse 1, but I don't quite trust 'cruellest' either. Maybe you can help? - Susanne ^^

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:34 PM

Thank you, Susanne, this is also one of the songs I would sooner or later have posted a lyrics request for. I know it from a tape I can't find at the moment, but I think I once saw a CD version of it. From listening to the tape I would vote for "the cruellest trade" (if so - what is meant?). Also - yes, I also would have voted for "the iron man" if nobody had told me, but again - what's that, who or what is meant?

Gruss

Joerg

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:31 AM

G'day Joerg,

Presumably, the "cruellest trade" is that of taking people away from their loved homes (because there are no more jobs)- cheap emigration ships, carrying away Irish (mostly men) as they have for centuries.

I would take "the iron men" as those who work heavy metal - especially ship-builders and boilermakers.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:53 PM

Thank you, Bob - maybe you're simply right. When I hear or read such terms I always think of some special, hidden meaning, some secret allusion I don't understand because I don't know the circumstances it refers to. 'The cruellest trade': Slavery? - Eddie Furey really pronounces 'iron men' like 'iron man' in the record I know and that's how I always understood it. So I'm wondering who the iron man might have been, and as I don't know, did I understand 'iron' correctly or is it some other word? You might notice that I even READ 'iron men' in the lyrics above the wrong way.

I mean to say that what is happening here sometimes is really enlightening, and when I say 'thank you', don't take it as a simple phrase.

Joerg

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 10:47 PM

G'day Joerg,

I think you are right! Alot of the ships that carried emmigrants in the early/mid 19th century were, in fact, originally slavers. I attended a lecture on the early German migration to Australia (1830s) and many of the ships on the register were (slightly) converted slavers.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 06:56 PM

Sorry, Joerg, fell asleep again before I reached the Mudcat last night. I'd agree with Bob on both counts - he's put it exactly as I've always understood those two terms. The singer's pronunciation is rather awkward in places, and my tape is bad, but I clearly understand 'iron men', and I think they're both the men who work iron and who are hard themselves. Or do you think that is overdoing it, Bob? - Cheers, Susanne

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Joerg
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 09:56 PM

Susanne - don't bother too much about the meaning of the text, I just wanted to point out how difficult it can be to understand something you think you don't understand ...

But I meanwhile found the tape I was referring to and I think it's worth mentioning, especially because it is available in Germany and also because it doesn't look like some considerable folk issue - AND I still believe I once saw a CD version.

It's labelled "- ON THE ROAD - Another Feast of Irish Folk" with a red Volvo 480 ES on its front, Polydor 829 741-4. This is one of my better tapes: It also contains a quite good version of "Snowy Breasted Pearl", one of the best versions of "The Green Fields of France" (also done by Fureys & Davey Arthur), the best version I know of "The Rare Ould Times" (Danny Doyle with piano), "The Boys of Killybegs" done by Tommy Makem himself (Great!) and - first of all - "Thios chois na tra domh" by Clannad: What a song!!!!! (Recently we had a whole thread about it but I simply can't find it to create a clicky - *sigh*).

All of the best

Joerg

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:25 PM

I've never heard the song and know nothing of the lyric, but will tell "dad's" little story of a painfull shipyard slip! My dad worked at the Shipyards in N. Vancouver back in the 40's. One day, while down in the hold, he was waiting for his buddy to pass a red hot rivit through a wee little hole, .... well....his buddy took too long ...so dad took a peek through the wee little hole ... and well ... we were always careful to misbehave on his left side!

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Owenie
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 10:18 AM

The lyric is
"on a ship that was built for the tourist trade"
Cheers
Owen

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Gedpipes
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 11:30 AM

tell me that rivet story is not true - please
Ged

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Greg B
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 11:43 AM

Funny this should turn up.

I took to singing that song on the way to work the other
morning as I listened to the story of the Adams/Paisley
meeting.

'...but there's no work now, in these Troubled times...'

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Soundcatcher
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 10:04 PM

Hi all

This is a song I loved when I first heard it and proceeded to perform it at my local club.
Although , like you, I'm not sure about the use of the word "Tourist", Iwas brought to task about the use of 'Iron Men'.

One James O'neil at our club informed me that the term was "Island Men" and referred to the shipbuilding yards on Kings Island which I believe is situated on the river Shannon.

Hope this Helps

Regards John

Subject: RE: Shipyard Slips
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 31 Mar 07 - 04:56 PM

Owen, thank you for your info - still welcome after seven years of uncertainty, and it certainly makes sense. However, being of the contrary kind I'd like to know where you got it from. Have you got a better recording than we have? Or have you seen the lyrics printed somewhere?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 08:51 PM

Just found vinyl single of it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 12:54 PM

iron men might be. island men ref queens island shipyard belfast where titanic was built

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 04:23 PM

I remember The Fureys singing this at the Thurso Folk Festival in the late 1970s. It's also on a CD called "The Far Set" by Belfast flute-player Michael Clarkson, and guitar and bouzouki-playing singer Gerry Jones. Gerry sings "tourist" trade, and sings "island men".
The sleeve notes say this :

"A more modern setting for the theme of emigration. This song, also known as "The Island Men" [*] was written by the excellent Belfast songwriter Brian Moore in the late 1960s"

[*] - it's titled "The Shipyard Slips" on the CD.

You can download the track for £0.79 on iTunes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST,Guest, Jim McCullough
Date: 15 Mar 12 - 05:07 AM

This song, originally titled "The Island Men", referring to the shipyard workers, at Queen's Island, where Harland and Wolfe shipyard used to be in Belfast, first appeared on "England's Vietnam" by The Men of no Property in the 70's.
The first verse and the chorus were written by Dave Scott (pseudonymously David Wilde) and the rest was written by Brian "Whoriskey", as it appeared on the record sleeve. Brian Whoriskey was alos a pseudonym, because that's what you did in Belfast at the time,if you were writing republican AND non-sectarian, socialist songs.Brian Moore was the real name of the author of most of the song. Long time Mudcatters may remember him as "Belfast". I remember him as the most intelligent and gifted person i have ever met. Unfortunately Brian, songwriter, cartoonist and playwright died last March. As one obituary stated, " In other times, he would have had a much wider audience". That is the real tragedy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: Paul Burke
Date: 15 Mar 12 - 07:48 PM

Sad. Brilliant song, despite the Fureys. And England's Vietnam was a brilliant record too. Jesus Christ and Jesse James.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 20 Nov 22 - 05:12 AM

"This song, originally titled "The Island Men", referring to the shipyard workers, at Queen's Island, where Harland and Wolfe shipyard used to be in Belfast"

Chorus; And I served me time with the iron men

Was originally; And I served my time with the island men

Dargan's Island; The beginning of the present era in Belfast shipbuilding dates from 1841, the year in which the Belfast port authorities commissioned a Co. Carlow engineer, William Dargan, to cut a wide, straight, and deep channel, 4 miles long, from the city, through the sloblands at the mouth of the river, to deep water. Dargan utilised the excavated material to make an island, Dargan's Island as it was first called, was laid out as a public pleasure ground, with trees, a green-house, walks, pools and bathing places.

Queen's Island; Soon after, on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit in 1849, it was re-christened Queen's Island, a name which is still retained as the official address of Harland & Wolff today. But Queen's Island was not destined to remain long in its original character of a public pleasure garden. Six years after the so called Island was finished, iron sailing ships were already being built on a corner of it by Messrs. Hickson & Co., and, just one year later in 1854, Messrs, Hickson engaged a lad from Tyneside, 23 years old, as manager of their diminutive yard, which gave employment to about 100 men.

This lad's name was Edward James Harland. After just four years managing the Robert Hickson & Company shipyard, he purchased the company for £5,000 and renamed it Edward James Harland & Company. On January 1st 1862, Mr. Harland took his chief draughtsman, Mr. Gustave Wilhelm Wolff, into partnership. From that date begins the official existence of the present company.

http://www.theyard.info/yards/belfast/1879.asp

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: Felipa
Date: 05 Jun 23 - 06:20 PM

some connections
the new https://news.sky.com/story/belfast-historic-moment-for-shipbuilding-will-see-900-jobs-created-as-part-of-1-6bn-navy-contract-12789362 Jan 2023, but the skilled workers from the shipyard before it closed would be too old now

https://digital.ucd.ie/view-media/ivrla:6172/canvas/ivrla:6173 broadsheet lyrics of "The Brave Queen's Island Boys"
definitely the "island men" not the "iron men", though they are described as "stalwart, strong and true".

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 08 Jun 23 - 02:44 AM

The Island Men, as sung by Men of No Property, early 1970s:


From Belfast town I'm on my way
On a ship that was built for the tourist trade
I leave my home and the land where I was born
And I won't come back till my fortune is made

Chorus:
I served my time with the Island men
And I've known good times and work in plenty
But there's no work now in these troubled times
For the shipyard slips are lying empty

Farewell to my father and mother fair,
Old age has laid its hand upon you
You loved me well and you never failed
It's leaving your side my heart will rue

I promised to write when I've settled down
To ease your mind, for I know you'll worry
Think of the time when I return
But don't count the days for time won't hurry

I'll remember the hills and the fresh north air
I'll remember the girls with their friendly smiles
I'll think of the city and the friends that I have there
And I hope my love will transcend the miles.

I'm leaving the land where I was born
But I long for the day of my returning
To a job, a home, and peace of mind-
For the Belfast people I'll always be yearning

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Shipyard Slips (David Wilde)
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 08 Jun 23 - 03:15 AM

Slight correction (fading memory; I haven't sung this for 20+ years):

I'll think of the friends that I love so dear