Clyde's Bonnie Banks - Christy Moore

By Clyde’s Bonnie Banks as I sadly did wander

Among the pit heaps as evening drew nigh

I spied a fair maiden all dressed in deep mourning

She was weeping and wailing with many a sigh

I stepped up beside her and thus I addressed her;

«Pray tell me fair maid of your sorrow and pain.»

Oh sobbing and sighing at last she did answer;

«Johnny Murphy, kind sir, was my true lover’s name.»

Twenty one years of age full of youth and good looking

To work in the mines of high Blantyre he came

The wedding was fixed all the guest were invited

That calm summers evening my Johnny was slain

The explosion was heard, all the women and children

With pale anxious faces they ran to the mine

When the news was made known all the hills rang with mourning

Three hundred and ten young miners were slain

Now husbands and wives and sweethearts and brothers

That Blantyre explosion you’ll never forget

And all you young miners that hear my sad story

Remember your comrades who lie at their rest

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Maybe it was Arthur Johnson of Glasgow or Dick Gaughan of Leith who first sang

this song, it could have been in the backroom of The Scotia or the snug in

Sandy Bells.

Still the bosses skimp on safety conditions in the workplace.

In 2007 I see it every where I go