“The ESB in Coolea”
Description
"ESB with 'lectricity is landed in Coolea For to give us light by day or night with bulbs that do not blow." Cullinane "climbs the poles ... watch the sputniks glow." There are jobs digging holes, pegging lines, driving trucks." Not like fifty years ago.
Notes
OCanainn: "It's less than twenty years since Coolea got its electricity supply (1959) so this is a fairly modern composition." - BS
A point reinforced by the mention of "Sputniks"; Sputnik 1 of course was launched in 1957 (October 4), and it was not until some time later that satellites were large enough to be visible to most people's naked eye.
Gripes about twenty/thirty/fifty years ago, on the other hand, go back about as far as we have records.
ESB is the Electricity Supply Board, founded in 1927 largely to administer the electricity yielded by the Shannon Scheme (for which see "The Shannon Scheme" and "The Straightened Banks of Erne"). - RBW
References
- OCanainn, pp. 36-37, "Fifty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, OCan036