Shannon Scheme, The

DESCRIPTION: The Shannon Scheme will "light our houses," "stitch our blouses," "milk our cows," "churn the cream," "reap and mow," "spin and sew," provide "more employment and more enjoyment and happier homes." A toast to the scheme and its promoters
AUTHOR: Sylvester Boland (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: river technology humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18468
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "The Shannon Scheme" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES [150 words]: 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. The song was written in 1927...." - 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: RcShaSch

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