Straightened Banks of Erne, The

DESCRIPTION: The romantic "winding banks of Erne" are no more. "'Progress hates meandering' is a maxim all must learn, So the engineers have straightened out the winding banks of Erne" for the new powerhouse at the falls of Assaroe.
AUTHOR: Colm O Lochlainn (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river technology nonballad parody
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 16A, "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shannon Scheme" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES [191 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Written by the compiler to celebrate the opening of the Erne hydro-electric scheme and dedicated to the late Dr Laurence Kettle and Professor Tatlow, the engineers responsible for the scheme." By O Lochlainn's description, it is a parody
Notes to IRClare01: "The Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State, by harnessing the fall in the River Shannon between Killaloe and Limerick, was commenced in 1925 and completed in 1929 and, within six years, was supplying 85% of Ireland's electricity requirements...." - BS
According to John A. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century(Gill and MacMillan, 1975, 1989), p. 65, "[T]he most far-sighted step in the development of natural resources by the state was the Shannon Scheme -- the beginning of the national supply of electricity -- and the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in 1927, destined to be perhaps the most successful of those semi-state bodies which in future years became characteristic and indispensible features of the Irish economy."
For a later song about Ireland's electrification, see "The ESB in Coolea." - RBW
File: OLcM016A

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