Henry's Songbook

Chorus.
If it wasn't for the Irish what could we do
The country would collapse in a week or two
Auld Britannia would soon be in a stew
If it wasn't for the work of the Irish

The Irishman in England enjoys a special role
Whether working on the buildings or digging down a hole
For Sir Bob McAlpine would soon be on the dole
If it wasn't for the work of the Irish

The motorways were started by digging up the sods
The Irish tackle anything no matter what the odds
And who invented Guinness, the nectar of the gods
Oh it must have been the work of the Irish

Consider Irish navvies every time you look around
On all the brand-new buildings erected in the town
And who the hell would have the strength to tear the old ones down
If it wasn't for the work of the Irish

The Irish send us navvies, their nurses and the rest
Without their help and guidance we'd soon be in a mess
There's be no priest in England to whom we could confess
If it wasn't for the work of the Irish

(as sung by The Spinners)

Tune: The Wark o' the Weavers

[1990:] Put at its simplest, without the Irish there would have been no industrialisation [in Britain]. They laid the roads and railways, they dug the canals and the dams, they constructed the tenements, factories and mills, they mined the coal and iron ore, they laboured in shipyard and dock, they wove, spun, and bleached and dyed the textiles. (Damer, Glasgow 52)