Absolutely 💯 lovely singer Come to Canada 🇨🇦

Very nice voice Mary.👍

... exorbitant voice of country!

By.far,the,best.female. voice.ireland,has,produced,in.the.lastsixty,yrs

Thanks for that very interesting post. I’m in Ireland and I’ve often wondered about the origin of this wonderful song. There wasn’t really much coal mining in Ireland, so I’d always assumed it had its origins in the once huge coal mining districts of Britain. I remember the massive strike in Britain in 1984/85 when the coal miners (the aristocracy of the working class) fought in vain against a cruel government to save their livelihoods. In my own mind I’d associated this song with that event. But listening to it now, it does of course have that North American feel to it. I think its a great tribute to the old miners as they leave their church for the final time. Anyway, I’m off to search KZfaq for Rita macNeill and the men of the Deeps. Thanks again.

The Coal Miners emotions are all the same, wherever a coal mine exists. The miners were "Fractional Slaves" as the foundation of the Industrial Revolution. Without Coal, the Industrial Revolution that created so much wealth, would never have taken place.

@@davidpryle3935 Rita MacNeil is a Canadian icon. She had a beautiful voice and was genuinely humble. She is missed in our great country.

R.I.P Rita MacNeil

From Australia, though my father and uncles and grandfather and great grandfathers were coal miners in England, I’ve only been down a tourist pit in England. This is truly a beautifully honest piece of writing, I began to tear up as I read it. I had an Irish great grandmother, who came from Coal Island, which is in Northern Island, so I’m assuming that their might have been coal mines, but I’m inclined to agree, in comparison with the past in the United Kingdom, where there were many, al I ever saw in Ireland were carts with peat on them, that being in 1961.

She sings with the voice of an angel 😇

Beautiful!

@@johnmorrison8574 having seen Mary in concert, I will agree with you! I saw her in 2011 (12 years ago) and I was blown away

❤

Nothing like the love of an Irish Colleen. I was 50 years old before I found mine, 50 years wasted.

correction, one of the WORLD'S best Female Vocalists from Ireland

Great!

Rita McNeil bought this song out in the late 1980s,

Rita actually wrote the song

She's Irish my friend

Hard times you were thrown out on street if your husband or father got killed in the mines that’s why the Irish piest started the knights of COLUMBUS FOR TO START THE INSURANCE TO GIVE TO THE FAMILYSO THE AMERICAN OVERNMENT COULLDNT TAKE THE CHILDRENAWAYFROM THE MOTHER AND SEND THEM TO WORK ON FARMS AND NEVER SEE THERE MOTHER AGAIN THATTS THE BEST EVEN NOW MOM COULD KEEP HER CHILDREN NEVER KNEW THAT HAPPENED THE PRIEST WAS A GOOD MAN ITS IN FALL RIVER AND ITS NOT ITALIAN HE JUST GAVE IT THAT NAME FR MCCRTRICK I THINK MAKE HIM A SAINT JUST FOUND OUT IT WAS ON TVCANT BELIEVE CHILDREN WERE TAKEN FROM THERE MOTHER THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS A LOT TO ANSWER IT WAS LIKE OLIVER WHITE CHILDREN WERE TREATED WORSE THAN SLAVES GOD HELP US THANK U EVERY DAY FOR THE MEN WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM LIFE WAS BAD FOR POLISH IN THE MINES TOO LOT OF IRISH AND POLISH IN THE MINES ANY OTHER PEOPLE IN THE MINES NEVER KNEW THIS HAPPENED JOIN THE KNIGHTS ITS GOOD FOR INSURANCE

She did ...did she perform with Louise Morrisey...remember Louise singing this in Barry's Hotel in Dublin at a dance many moons ago now.

Rita wrote and sung it .