My grand dad was a navvy from Monaghan. Then he fought in Italy. He came to Toronto and founded Shamrock Construction building stations on Toronto's subway. "Suicide John" McElwain. On the occasion that a man on his crew fell down some hole with no air to breath, had passed out to die my grandad lashed rope around his ankles and immediately had himself to be lowered in. He would yank them out even before the troopers arrived. The firemen told him "it's suicide, don't do that again!". My grandad would explain "Well he's got X number of kids etc... "
The song was written by Doiminic Ó Beacháin who was a Socialist not a pira sympathiser so therefore you should not claim on you tube that it was written by mwallopers,if only. Both the wolve tone deaf and other Nationalists groups take songs written pre 1970 about the ira and pretend that they are a modern take when they are not. So I would safely say that Doiminic would be appalled by the breach in copyright and the misuse of his work .
When you sung this one last night in Melbourne Charles it was my favourite bit of the gig. It took a while to settle them down though.... I left Dundalk in 86 and worked on the building sites in London up to the mid 90s so I can relate to a lot of the songs content...now I'm a construction safety Inspector!
My dad from Cork and Antrim worked for all these names. When we passed a McAlpine Billboard he would spit. later on he became a quantity surveyor and was shocked that he was allowed to use the bosses toilet on construction sites. To him that meant he had made it. He worked on the flood barrier and Canary wharf and many other London projects
