Song information On this page you can find the lyrics of the song Prince Among Men, artist - Andy Irvine.
Date of issue: 31.12.1995
Song language: English
Prince Among Men |
His dad was a miner and his granddad was too |
There was never much question about what he might do |
By the age of thirteen he had laid down his pen |
And become a coal-miner and a prince among men |
My goal as a young lad from a bright early age |
Was to follow my hero down in that cage |
Fairy lights and Pit Ponies were the stuff of my dreams |
Never thinking how hard my dad worked at the seam |
Only a miner killed under the ground |
Only a miner and one more is found |
Killed by accident no one can tell |
Your mining’s all over, poor minr, farewell |
Dad worked lik a Trojan his money to save |
I’m afraid that he worked himself into his grave |
And my schooling was paid at the cost of his lungs |
Dad was an old man at the age of forty-one |
I never will forget how his face lit with pride |
When I got my diploma, he was there by my side |
And I try to remember him as he was then |
A rare moment of joy for a prince among men |
A gold watch and chain inscribed James Doyle |
Never seemed much reward for a life of such toil |
But I keep his lamp burning and his old union card |
And his bones rest here in this sunlit graveyard |
My dad was a miner and a prince among men |
Well loved by his wife and his family and friends |
And his hardship and toil gave me the one chance I had |
And generations of slavery died with my dad |