Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
Don't turn to look on the green hills of Antrim
Fermanagh's behind you, it's time to move on
Look onwards tae Glasgow and all your tomorrows
The future lies there, and it's waiting for you
As the green crosses over to meet with the blue

And what was the sense when the wee ones were crying
The cries of the hungry, no sense to remain
No prayer could recover a sister or brother
So farewell to Fermanagh, the praying is done

The land that you leave has had too many martyrs
And too many lives that have perished in vain
And too many boats slipping out from its harbours
With cargoes that never came homewards again

If the wings of the eagle could carry you over
To the land of the prairie, then surely you'd fly
But an ocean so wide, and a far distant country
So far from your own land is no place to die

(as sung by The Battlefield Band)

[1988:] Erst das Zeitalter der Industriellen Revolution brachte eine weitere wesentliche Auffrischung des Blutes, denn der gerade zur Zeit der irischen Hungersnot steigende Bedarf an billigen Arbeitskräften lockte Iren in großer Zahl nach Glasgow und in den industrialisierten Südwesten. Diese waren selbstverständlich ebenfalls keltischer Abstammung; ihre Anwesenheit wirkte sich nichtsdestoweniger deutlich, manchmal sogar konfliktfördernd aus, und zwar aus zwei Gründen: Sie waren fast alle römisch-katholischen Glaubens, wohingegen die Schotten nun im großen und ganzen überzeugt protestantisch waren; sie waren außerdem arm - es handelte sich um Landarbeiter, die hierherkamen, weil sie zu verhungern drohten -, und es lag im Wesen der neuen industriellen Gesellschaft, diesen Zustand eher zu verschlimmern als zu bessern. Daraus entstand das "Problem der Glasgower Iren", das bis heute noch keine endgültige Lösung gefunden hat. (Mitchell/ Prinzing, Schottland 35)

[1991:] The connections between Ireland and Scotland, especially Glasgow, have been a feature of the history of both countries for centuries. Alan Reid's song expresses those connections on a very human level and the 'green' is still crossing over to meet with the 'blue'. (Notes Battlefield Band, 'New Spring')

See also Sean Damer, Glasgow: Going for a song

 [2000:] For two centuries, Irish navvies worked on England's roads, railways, schools, hospitals and factories, helping to ensure that the sun never set on the British Empire. Now it is post-imperial Britain's turn to provide the labour to keep Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy roaring on into the twenty-first century. With record levels of job vacancies and the highest economic growth in Europe, Ireland - the nation that once exported its people by the thousands to work in often menial jobs in Britain - is looking to the UK for extra workers to maintain its unprecedented prosperity. The Irish government is planning a massive recruitment drive across Britain this autumn to woo English, Scottish and Welsh workers to fill the estimated 100,000 job vacancies in the Republic over the next five years. [...]

Roger Cottrell from Worcester has worked on six building sites across Ireland since he moved across the Irish Sea in 1998. […] He pointed out that few English workers in Ireland had encountered the type of xenophobia experienced by Irish labourers in Britain. (Henry McDonald, Observer, 6 Aug)