Lyr Req: McAlpine's Fusiliers

Subject: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Chaucer
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 06:53 AM

I would really appreciate the lyrics to "McAldine's Fusileers". A fragment I know is:
O, D'ye ken the day when the Bear O'Shea, Fell into a concrete stair
What Horseface said when he saw him dead, wasn't what the rich call tears
I'm a navvie short was the one retort that reached unto my ears,
When the going gets rough, you must be tough,
With McAldines Fusileers.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Watson
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:06 AM

Look for McAlpine's Dusiliers in the DT. You'll find it here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:06 AM

chaucer,

the words r in the dt. under m. go have a look

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Brían
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:07 AM

It's in the DT:here.

Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Watson
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:07 AM

What a Dusilier is I have no idea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: weerover
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:14 AM

Re Dusilier: have you not heard of the fine Irish song by Dr. Spooner, "The Fublin Dusiliers"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Watson
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:19 AM

I remember now - Fublin has all but died out in some parts of the country.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:21 AM

surely, its 'fumblin'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:24 AM

sorry chaucer,

i think we're all reading your request wrong- i looked at your title again- you're asking for 'McAldine's Fusileers'?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: GUEST,Chaucer
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:52 AM

Hey, Thanks people! It was the Dusilliers bit which threw me, and the fact that the Dubliners took Dominic Behan's "McAldine" and turned it into McAlpine. I didn't know they had recorded it. Great song, and thanks for the help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: HuwG
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 08:09 AM

You might also have a look at The Dublin Fusiliers, same group, same source.

I can't find the Reverend Spooner's version, sorry.

Unlike McAlpine's Fusiliers, which was a nickname for Irish navvies employed by the British construction firm McAlpine, the Dublin Fusiliers were a Regiment in the British Army (I think they were the 87th Foot); they were disbanded on the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 06:39 PM

Behan definately wrote Mc Alpine and not Mc Aldine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 07:15 PM

Some people don't recognize a wind-up even when it stares them in the face ...

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Big Tim
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 06:56 AM

Brian Behan, Dom's brother, claims he wrote the song and gave it to Dom! He also says they didn't speak to each other for more than 30 years so mesuspects a little bit of sibling rivalry at work. However that IS what the man has said in print.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 08:41 AM

According to info in another thread it was first published as 'McAldine' in order to avoid a costly lawsuit by the then extremely influential firm of McAlpine. Sounds quite likely to me!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 09:44 AM

Interesting point Susanne. I'll keep an open mind. Mc Alpine, by the way was a Prodestant Scot. The only people he hated more in the world than Catholics was Irish Catholics. However he loved his money and hired thousands of Paddies because he knew they were the best workers.
I remember a lot of Mc Alpine sites in the seventies where you would find it very hard to get a job as a labourer unless you were Irish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 03:20 PM

"However he loved his money and hired thousands of Paddies because he knew they were the best workers"

Try telling that to any Scottish or English building-trade craftsman.

The reason McAlpine and many employers before him hired Irish workers was because they were prepared to work for rates which the indigenous workers wouldn't have tolerated for one moment.


Murray

Subject: ADD Versions: McAldine's Fusileers
From:
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 11:53 PM

I was actually looking for the *meaning* of these lyrics, but here- I did find them! (The heavy gaelic accent on my cassette tape made it near impossible for me to decypher them by listening...and I'm not that great anyhow.) The song is on the album, "25 Irish Drinking (or pub) songs." I can get more information on it if you need, to find out who performs this version, which is excellent in my opinion, but the lyrics follow. (If you want the album info, let me know through email, as this is a chance visit to the forum through a web search, and I'm probably not headed back here...) Apparently the lyrics are based on a poem, which is here, just before the lyrics...


McALPINE'S FUSILIERS
(Poem)

'Twas in the of thirty-nine, when the sky was full of lead
When Hitler was heading for Poland and Paddy for Holyhead
Come all you pincher laddies and you lost distance men
Don't ever work for McAlpine, for Wimpy, nor John Lang

For you'll stand behind the mixer, till your skin has turned to tan
And they'll good of you Paddy, with your boat fair in your hand
Oh, the crack was good in Cricklewood and the wouldn't leave the Crown
With glasses flyin' and Biddy's cryin', sure Paddy was goin' to town

Oh mother dear I'm over here, I'll never coming back
What keeps me here is rake of beer the ladies and the crack
I come from the County Kerry, the lands of eggs and bacon
And if you think I'll eat your fish and chips, Bejasus, you're mistaken

---

McALPINE'S FUSILIERS
(Dominic Behan)

As down the glen came McAlpine's men with their shovels slung behind them
It was in the pub that they drank their sub or down in the spike you will find him
We sweated blood and we washed down mud with pints and quarts of beer
But now we're on the road again with McAlpine's Fusiliers

I stripped to the skin with the Darky Finn down upon the Isle of Grain,
With Horseface Toole I learned the rule, no money if you stop for rain.
For McAlpine's god is a well filled hod with your shoulders cut to bits and seared
And woe to he who looks for tea with McAlpine's Fusiliers

I remember the day that the Bear O'Shea fell into a concrete stair,
What Horseface said, when he saw him dead, well it wasn't what the rich call prayers.
I'm a navvy short, was his one retort that reached unto my ears,
When the going is rough, well you must be tough with McAlpine's Fusiliers

I've worked till the sweat near had me beat with Russian, Czech and Pole,
At shuttering jams up in the hydra dams or underneath the Thames in a hole,
I grafted hard and I got me cards and many a ganger's fist across me ears,
If you pride your life, don't join, by Christ, with McAlpine's Fusiliers

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: GUEST,ossonflags
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 02:28 AM

I read that Brian Behan has claimed "McAlpines Fisiliers" as his own.

It is true that Brian worked for McAlpines in the fifties on the "Festival of Britain" and the "Shell Mex" sites were he was a trade union organisor and led a few big strikes.

He wrote a very good book about his experiances in those times called "With Breast Expanded".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAldine's Fusileers
From: Flash Company
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 10:38 AM

Worked for McAlpine in the '60s after they took over a firm I was working for at the time. It was an office job, but they sure liked their pound of flesh!
I finished up with a bleeding ulcer as a result of trying to work through a 'flu bout on a diet of aspirin, five month's in hospital!
As th song says 'Don't join, by Christ!'

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAlpine's Fusileers
From: belfast
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 11:11 AM

Dominic did record it under the title "McAldine's Fusiliers". Probably for the libel reasons mentioned earlier. As to who wrote the song I think we can say that Dominic claimed it and, at the time, nobody contradicted him.

The introductory poem - I have been told that it was written by Pecker Dunne. I have no way of knowing if that's true.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAlpine's Fusileers
From: Brakn
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 11:35 AM

When I sang it one night I introduced it as being written by Dominic Behan. I guy came up and said I was wrong. He claimed that "Darkie McClafferty" wrote it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAlpine's Fusileers
From: Big Tim
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 02:57 PM

Anyone got Dom's "McAldine's" date. Thanks for info Susanne: it was news to me. Dubs recorded it as McAlpine's in 60s.

Brakn: are you still looking for "Do Your Best For One Another"? (Johnny Patterson, not Dominic Behan). I have an excellent rendition, if still wanted, PM me an address.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McAlpine's Fusiliers
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 10:20 AM

the crack was good in cricklewood the night they robbed the stage