Lyr: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man

Subject: thirty years a ganger and never sacked
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 12:57 PM

Someone told me a lyric I can't now find or get out of my head - please help. Lyrics went something like

   I cut the rock against the grain from ...to ...?
   I was thirty years a ganger and never scked a man??

Thanks

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked
From: Peace
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 03:37 PM

Where did you hear it? Country? Time? Date? Year? Radio, TV? Stuff like that.

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: ossonflags
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 06:43 AM

Hi Mark I am sure I have that song somewere give me a little time to do a search

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: GUEST,guest mick
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 10:21 AM

From Derry to Straban

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 10:36 AM

Guest mick, do you have the lyrics? If you don't, or don't have the time to type them in, can you provide any information on the song, such as its name, who sings it, who wrote it if it's not trad?

I've done a search for 'ganger' and 'stonecutter' (figuring that's what the song's about) and found some good songs, but not this one.

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: belfast
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 04:14 AM

I would assume that the suggested line "From Derry to Straban(e)" is a joke.

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: ard mhacha
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 04:33 AM

I hope you have luck with the words, but you will have trouble finding the ganger, they were all hard hearted bastards.

Subject: RE: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 22 Feb 05 - 11:11 AM

That's really all I can remember of the song ; I was always impressed by those two lines myself . I heard them from my father who was a leading miner ;he worked building the underground tunnels ,sewers etc all around England . A ganger or gangerman is a man in charge of a small gang of navvies .
My old fella is into his ninetees now. When I see him again I'll ask him if he knows any more of the words ,but his memory is slipping as you can guess

Subject: RE: Lyr: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Jan 11 - 10:11 PM

I found these lines in a blog:

"It was in the rain we built a drain from Luton to Westham,
I've been 40 years a ganger and I've never sacked a man."

Subject: RE: Lyr: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 Jan 11 - 11:21 PM

Hmmm...

I "Googled" <40 years a ganger and I've never sacked a man> ... and all the came up was this thread - and Jim's link to a "blog"!

It does look like this something out of the vast and wide-ranging history of (largely Irish ...?) army of "navvies" that built just about everything we depend(ed) on in transport ... before that left the ground / road / rails / river / canal / ocean behind (or below!).

I'll keep an eye on this, but I am bereft of bright and useful notions.

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: GUEST,Sean
Date: 15 May 12 - 05:07 AM

Did it go??
I'm sorry joe,
ye'l have ta go,
I'm takin' on dog rough dan,
How are ya dan?
'Dog rough...diddly diddly dan

Subject: RE: Lyr: thirty years a ganger and never sacked a man
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 May 12 - 09:09 AM

I wonder if this song is related to "Jerry, Go and Oil That Car" which has the lines:

"Twenty years a section boss,
I never hired a tar"

I suppose that is a bit of a stretch.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble