I was handed this rhyming, possibly local, poetic gem recently. Perhaps some of our regular readership may be able to cast further light as to the full identity of these three bardic composers, named hereunder.
Great Big Water Tower
[Gaynor, Rochford, Reynolds – Christmas ’59]
Thurles town has several wonders the traveller loves to tell.
‘The Factory’ and ‘The Station’, the works at ‘Ladyswell’.
But now the greatest wonder – sure it went up in just an hour,
It stands on Loughtagalla Hill – that great big Water Tower.
The town took up the challenge in the year of ’53.
They filled the roads with trenches, they were there for all to see.
They laid ten miles of piping, which soaked in every shower,
And brought it up through Mitchel Street, to that great big Water Tower.
From Upperchurch and Littleton the workforce did arrive.
They made our noble Quarry Street look as busy as a hive.
They used pick-axe and shovel and great pneumatic power
To bring our water rations from that great big Water Tower.
And now the work is ended, from miles around ’tis seen.
It stands just like a rocket base above the Bowling Green.
You can talk about Cape Canaveral, which made Nikita Khrushchev cower,
But what would Joseph Stalin say, if he saw our Water Tower.
But then there was a failure, we thought that all was lost,
When in the year of ’59 it was broken by the frost.
But now there’s streams of water for those hot baths in Clongour,
(Which in Saxon means “Goats Meadow”), from that same big Water Tower.
LOVELY READING
This was written by Chris Gaynor, Seamus Rochford, Nicky Reynolds. It was written one evening in a small house in Mitchel Street in 1959.
I’ve been living in the UK now for since the early 60’s and I never heard this poem before. Is it a poem or a song?
Hi Anoinette,
It started off life as a poem, but maybe someone will add music and Thurles can have a new ‘Local Anthem’.
Actually it is a song. It was sung at a concert in the Premier Hall many, many years ago after which the words were published in the Tipperary Star.