Everything changes. But what do you do when your career, your life, your joy, comes to an end because everything must change. We’re talking about the life of a scallop diver in Lamlash Bay.

You can learn all about it today on Pub Songs & Stories #282

0:17 - Marc Gunn “Favor of a Dance” from Come Adventure With Me

3:14 - WELCOME TO PUB SONGS & STORIES

I am Marc Gunn. I’m a Sci F’Irish musician and podcaster living in Atlanta, Georgia.

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8:28 - UPCOMING SHOWS

  • MAR 9: Senoia Beer Company, Senoia, GA @ 7-10 PM
  • MAR 17: Wings Cafe & Tap House, Marietta, GA @ 3-7 PM
  • MAR 23-24: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX
  • MAR 28: Dragon Con Filk Music Concert w/Brobdingnagian Bards @ 8 PM
  • MAR 30-31: Sherwood Forest Faire, Paige, TX

Make sure you check the calendar on the Marc Gunn homepage to see the latest list of performances.

9:29 - The Byrne Brothers "P Stands for Paddy" from The Boys of Doorin

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12:43 - THE STORY OF MYRA’S LAMENT FOR LAMLASH BAY

  • I plagiarise songs into local events..the one I sang last night I wrote at 3 AM in the morning. My wife had been in hospital 100 miles away, for two months, and the chorus came to my head when I was feeling sorry for myself. Simultaneously, the Government had decided to ban us clamming in Lamlash Bay. I’d sustainably hand picked scallops there for 34 years. The trawler/dredgers were destroying the habitat, and they wanted to

ban them. But they done us in as well… a Federal hammer to crack a wee nut!!!! So, the song is called “Myra’s lament for Lamlash Bay”…Lamlash is at the Isle of Arran.

  • Tommy Makem inspired my plagiarism with “The Boys from Killybegs.” Killybegs is a fishing port in Donegal, Ireland..Dun Na Gael…. The Fortress of the Stranger. Tommy famously sang and played banjo with the Glancy Brothers..
  • Sgheirs:- Gaelic..reefs pronounced “skerries.
  • clams”:- generic term in Scotland for bivalve shellfish..we fish for scallops..Pecten maximus
  • Sound:- navigable stretch of water between two pieces of land in this case formed by the Tarbert shore and Isle of Arran.
  • Thole :- Lalands Scots (old Scots) my work they won’t accept or tolerate.
  • Dole:- Un-employment register
  • Listen to the original version of the song on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #85.

Myra’s Lament for Lamlash Bay

lyrics Liam Griffin, music Marc Gunn

There are scallops in the sea, put there for you and me By the Lord who reigns from heaven above. And the divers catch and sell, but we won’t go to hell, We treat the sea with joy, respect and love.

* There’s a wild and rolling sea bringing me back home to ye. To yer bed that’s dry and crisp and woman warm And our lovin’ knows no harm when I hold ye in my arms. When the Boys from Lerags Glen come rollin’ home.

There are rocks upon the shore, There are sgheirs even more* And the trawlers they are dredging to and fro’ But the diver’s in the gully, for the seabed we don’t sully Hand pickin’ is the way I chose to go.

But today the sea is calm and the boat is full of clams** And swiftly we have cleared KilBrannon Sound..*** Sacks of scallops stacked up high All our divers safe and dry And soon for Lerags Glen we’re homeward bound.

But now a new day’s dawned and time is moving on and conservation is a game that they al play and my work the cannot thole and I’m told to sign the dole No more from Lerags Glen go to the sea.

23:37 - Marc Gunn “Myra’s Lament for Lamlash Bay” from Come Adventure With Me

27:22 - CREDITS

Thanks for listening to Pub Songs & Stories. This episode was edited by Mitchell Petersen.

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