Drill Ye Tarriers

Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill

This is a well-known song in American tradition, with our version being nicely-localized into the Canadian context. Such borrowing-and-changing is common in the folkways, with this particular song indicating a vibrant tradition in Western Canada. Phil Thomas found a composite version of the song in an old newspaper upon which we've based this particular performance.

More information: Songs of the Pacific Northwest by Phil Thomas (Saanicton BC: Hancock, 1979, pp. 88-91). Click HERE to see more background on this song.

(Tim: vocal, guitar; Grit: harmony vocal, mandolin; Barry: harmonica; Patty: bass)

Every morning at seven o'clock
You see a gang of tarriers a-drillin' in the rock
The foreman says, "Now don't stand still
And come down heavy on that cast iron drill."

Chorus: So drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it's work all day for the sugar in your tay
When you work upon the CP railway
So drill, ye tarriers, drill.

Now the boss sent us to drill a hole
He cursed and damned our Irish soul
He cursed the ship that brought us through
To work on the CP railway crew

Now the foreman's name was Pat McGann
My son, he was a darn fine man
Last week a premature blast went off
And a mile in the sky went Big Jim Gough.

Now the boys quit work to tell his wife
About how Jim had lost his life
Says she, "We'll take him into town"
Says they, "Well he ain't yet come down."

But the very next day we heard a cry
And saw Big Jim coming down from the sky
He lit on the top of a big rock dump
And he said, "My Lord, that's a hell of a bump."

Next week when payday rolled around
Big Jim a dollar short was found
When asked what for, came this reply
"You was docked for the time you was up in the sky."

Doctor Boskin is a real fine man
He's a man who really don't give a damn
He'll give you three or four black pills
To take you over the Eagle Hills.

Will Grant, our cook, was a Bluenose man
At making up hash, you bet he can
His bean's so fine they'd make a stew
To fatten the ribs of the Frank Brothers crew.

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Of Tarriers, Naavys, Coolies, Heroes, Gandy Dancers and Traqueros

Men who work building the railway have earned a number of colourful names, only one of which appears in "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill."

"Tarrier" is a vernacular British term for manual labourer. Often this refers to those involved with blasting and explosives. In the song "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill," the word refers to men of Irish descent. As you will notice in the second verse of The CPR Line, more than the Irish were involved in Canada (e.g., "There were Russians, and Prussians, Norwegians and Jews"). In addition, many of the workers in the riskiest parts of building the railway through the mountains were Chinese. So, in traditional Canadian fashion, we have to consider our "tarriers" a rather multi-cultural lot.

There is some controversy about the origin of the word "tarrier." According to a discussion in Word Origins Forum there are three possible sources for the word:

"tarrier" as one who dawdles or tarries, perhaps the view of management (as in the second verse of "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill");
"tarrier" as the old spelling of "terrier" relating to a burrowing, barky dog, said to have originated from the French word "terre" for earth;
"tarrier" as a boring tool, not your history teacher, but a drill-type apparatus hammered into rock to break it down or drill holes;
I've also seen the origin credited to the wiry whiskers sported by many of the labourers.

There's no clear winner among these, but (2) seems to get the majority of the press.

Another term that often gets used synomously with "tarrier" is "navvy." One example of this word is the second song in Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy: "We are the navvys who work upon the railroad." This term, again British, evolved from the great canal building projects of the late 18th century. The canals were also known as "navigations" and the shortened form, "navvy," was applied to the manual labourers who dug them, mostly Irish. Many canal workers were attracted to North America by the higher wages of railway building, so the name stuck when they immigrated.

The Chinese railway workers, particularly those who worked on the CPR, were called "coolies." When it originally entered the English language (from the Hindi-Urdu word "quli"), "coolie" referred to manual labourers from Asia circa 1900. Unfortunately over the years, and in the wake of generations of colonialism, the term has become pejorative, sometimes being used as a racial slur. These workers were, to all intents and purposes, "indentured labourers who lived under conditions often resembling slavery." To add insult to injury, when they were finished their work, they were actively discouraged from settling in Canada. There can be no doubt that their significant contribution to building the Canadian railroad is badly undervalued and undertold in the historical record.

And just to confuse things, a Newfoundland version of "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" carries the title "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill. So our "tarriers" are "heroes" now."

Finally, manual workers who keep the track in shape after it has been laid have a number of names. The term gandy dancer first appeared around 1918 in the United States. There is doubt about the origin of the word with it being attributed to a tool-making company, Gandy, who were said to manufacture shovels or to the name of the foreman of a particularly fast-working gang of trackmen. Unfortunately neither the company nor the foreman have been located in historical records. Nonetheless it is a great name, with the "dancer" part referring to the coordinated action required by a number of workers to tamp ballast and shift track back onto position. In Mexico and the southern states the term traquero is used. It is said to be Spanglish from the English word "track."

Whether called tarriers, navvys, coolies, heroes, gandy dancers or traqueros it is clear that the lives of these men were not easy. They were foot soldiers in building and maintaining the great North American railways. The humour and pluck of the workers in "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" is a tribute to their hard lives, making me think that, perhaps, the Newfoundland label is the most appropriate.

This brief resource is a "work in progress." If you have any suggestions for corrections or additions please let us know .

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