Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Day 220 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Gangs of pick and shovel men from Ireland made the dirt and gravel fly in the years named in this song, as they were building the many little stub line railroads that were later connected into trunk lines. Emerson wrote then, "The poor Irishman a wheelbarrow is his country."
"It is a considerable song and has been widely sung and known since its publication in sheet music in the early 1850's. Since then, too, the Irish have had a high percentage of railway executives; they have a faculty for railroading."
Day 220 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Gangs of pick and shovel men from Ireland made the dirt and gravel fly in the years named in this song, as they were building the many little stub line railroads that were later connected into trunk lines. Emerson wrote then, "The poor Irishman a wheelbarrow is his country."
"It is a considerable song and has been widely sung and known since its publication in sheet music in the early 1850's. Since then, too, the Irish have had a high percentage of railway executives; they have a faculty for railroading."
