Here is our Christmas/holiday present to you, our readers – a fully produced version of the “Irish Joiner,” a fun 1825 tune about how all professions are similar to woodworking.
The “Irish Joiner” was brought to life by woodworker Dan Miller who performed the vocals, octave mandolin and Irish whistle. He is accompanied by Peter Connolly on the Irish whistle, guitar and Irish drum. If you like the “Irish Joiner,” I think you’ll like Dan and Peter’s CD “A Parcel of Rogues,” from their group, Finagle. Check it out here on Amazon.
The original score was dug up by (who else) Jeff Burks, who found it featured in the play “The Shepherd of Derwent Vale; Or, The Innocent Culprit: a Traditionary Drama, in Two Acts, Adapted (and Augmented) from the French by Joseph Lunn.” Read the entire play here.
Rooney O’Chisel, the Irish joiner, is a supporting character in this tale of two brothers and treachery. He’s a joiner who was robbed of his business and then becomes a jailer.
You can download the mp3 using the link below. Then you can add it to iTunes, an mp3 player or just double-click so it will play on your computer. I think it’s a perfect piece of shop music, and I am pondering a sing-along at the next woodworking event I attend.
The Irish Joiner
Thanks to everyone involved in this project. I hope you enjoy the song, and you whistle it on your way to work.
— Christopher Schwarz
Irish Joiner
I’m a joiner by trade, and O’Chisel’s my name;
From the sod, to make shavings and money I came:
But myself I was never consarning
‘Bout the lessons of schools;
For my own chest of tools
And my shop were a college for larning.
For by cutting, contriving,
And boring, and driving,
Each larned profession gains bread;
And they’re sure to succeed,
If they only take heed
To strike the right nail on the head.
Whack! whack! hubbaboo, gramachree;
All the dons in the nation are joiners like me.
Whack! whack! hubbaboo, gramachree;
All the dons in the nation are joiners like me.
The lawyers, like carpenters, work on a binch,
And their trade’s just the same as my own to an inch;
For clients, whenever they dive in it,
Soon find the cash fail;
For the law’s a big nail,
An’ the ‘torneys are hammers for driving it.
For by cutting, &c.
Then each Sunday, at church, by the parson we’re tould,
By line, square, and compass, our actions to mould;
And at joining himself the right sort is;
For he pins man and wife
Together for life,
Just as firm as a tenon and mortise.
For by cutting, &c.
And the heroes who sarve in our army and ships,
When they’re fighting our battles, are all brotherchips,
So entirely our trades are according;
For, with tools of sharp steel,
Soldiers cut a great deal,
And the tars are nate workmen at boarding.
For by cutting, &c.
Then our nobles and marchants, and stock-jobbing lads,
Like joiners, work best when they’ve plenty of brads.
Each projector’s a great undertaker;
And, to clinch up the whole,
Our good king, bless his soul!
Is an elegant cabinet-maker.
For by cutting, &c.