THE SHUNTING YARD (Paul O’Brien)

I wrote this song in an English style because it’s about the English rail workers who worked laying the Great Western Railway to the Spencer Dock, many stayed on to settle in East Wall. I believe many were housed in the houses know locally as “Scotch Blocks”.

SO GRAB YOUR BREAD AND BILLYS CANS

AND HIDE YOUR UNION CARDS

THERE’S A HUNDRED MILES OF RAILWAY LINES

TO BE LAYIN’ IN THE SHUNTING YARD

We came to build the railway

From the midlands to the docks

Friday nights we meet out Jenny

Under Cleary’s clock

SO GRAB YOUR BREAD………..

They put us up in houses

Furnished lock and stock

The like you’ve never seen before

They called it a Scotch Block

SO GRAB YOUR BREAD………..

We navvies came from far and wide

To show these Paddies how

To cut a channel straight and true

And how to start a row

SO GRAB YOUR BREAD……….

We love the Dublin lassies boys

When they’re out for a drink

They couldn’t give a fiddlers fart

What the neighbours think

SO GRAB YOUR BREAD……….