Lyrics
Auction Days
The widows of New Waterford
set the sawhorses.
There were pick axes and shovels and lard oil lamps.
My mom bid on a badge that read:
‘Siol na fear fearail’.
I overheard my older sister say,
‘I will not marry. I will not marry.
I’ll not marry; I’ll host no auction day.
O let some good night, let some good night fall
On waving flags and on all of our auction days.’
The Tottenham Trench at Vimy bore out a nation.
But Easter '17 took Waterford for her Lamb.
And in July, Dominion Coal
took 65 more guys.
So I was raised by fatherless girls who cried,
In ’40, Hitler saved us all
from the coal shafts.
Yeah, but I signed up for another reason, too.
I was 28 and I knew what,
‘Siol na fear fearail’ meant.
I took Mom’s badge
to meet the father I never knew.
I got on my Balmoral cap
And I shined my shoes.
And with one more request of Waterford town to beg,
I went down to her mother's house
to ask, ‘Dear Clara, won’t you share my name?’
She smiled sad -
I knew what she would say.
