Clare County Library | Songs of Clare |
Clare County Library | Songs of Clare |
Come to the Hiring (Roud 12936) ![]() Mount Scott, Mullagh Recorded in Conway’s Bar, Mullagh, July 1976 ![]() |
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Young men and maidens draw near for
a while, See come to the hiring and make no delay, The farmer and wife snug in bed they can stay, You must attend to the horses I vow it’s no lie, How I would like for my time to be up, The poor servant girls without any doubt. Yerra wish it’s not like the day of the good
old times, Farmers take warning as I hear people say, Here’s a health to all farmers wherever they’ll
be, |
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“Songs about hiring fairs predominantly come from the North of Ireland and North East Scotland; this one appears to be restricted to Clare singers, there are the only the two Clare versions of it listed by Roud. There is a very full description by Malachy Horan of what he called a Hirage fair in Tallaght, County Dublin, during the second half of the nineteenth century. He said: ‘You know the old forge facing up the Tallaght
street. It was there that up to fifty years ago (1880) they held the
Hirage Fair. ... It would be held a few days before 15 August. The men
would come in from as far as Baltinglass. Some would be hired on the
road before they reached the forge. The leaving of them would gather
themselves about the forge. Each man would stick his pipe in the band
of his hat, as a badge that he was free for service. When he was hired
he would put it in his pocket. . . . Every man of them would be wearing
his whetstone in a pouch on his left, and often enough a high crowned
rush hat on his head. They were a great breed of men and civil spoken.
Some could reap an acre a day. I could myself one time, aye. The street
would be full, what with farmers looking for help and men anxious for
work. And when all was over there would be laughing and talking and
a bit of a dance or the wrestling. The ballad singer would be doing
a great trade, nor were the fiddlers idle.’”
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