Hiring Day
Sara Savage's poem ‘Hiring Day’ (as referenced in the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places, by May Blair.
Once you have read the poem, you can return to the Irelandseye extract from 'Hiring Fairs and Market Places', which quotes this poem:
I couldn’t look behind me
As I left the cottage door.
It was parting from the wee ones,
That made my heart so sore.
My mother took my bundle;
We were heading for the fair,
And the crowd was nearly gathered,
Agin we landed there.
We heard a lot of bargaining –
We stood about till late;
’Twas for some a ready market,
But others be to wait.
Then a man spoke up fornenst us
As he eyed me up and down,
‘Is the wee chile up for hirin’,
Or just in to see the town?’
‘A widda’s chile,’ says Mother,
‘Sure she be to go and earn,
The more she’s young she’s willin’,
And won’t be hard to learn.’
Soon the wage was settled,
And the earnest in my hand.
Says the master, ‘Now it’s hometime,
We’ll make it while we can.’
My mother was beside me,
As we jostled through the throng;
Says she, ‘I be to leave ye –
Now, don’t be thinkin’ long.’
Her plaid my eye could follow,
On the journey as before,
Then turning from the station,
Sure I saw her shawl no more.
There’s many a change since them times,
For its three score years come May,
But I never was as lonesome,
As on that Hiring Day.
Return to the County Down extract from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places, by May Blair.
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