If you perform a Google search for "John Denvir", you will likely be asked whether you really meant to search for John Denver. In the 19th Century John Denvir (1834-1916) was a noted Liverpool Irishman and a strong supporter of the republican cause. Although born in Ireland while his father was working there, Denvir belonged to an Irish community that was well established in Liverpool before the 1840's. As a young boy in Liverpool he witnessed the terrible scenes of distress among migrants escaping the Famine, scenes which powerfully influenced his political development as an Irish nationalist. His autobiography, 'The Life Story of an Old Rebel', was first published in 1910, and it is now available to read online at Project Gutenburg.
It is well worth reading for the story it gives of how the Irish in Britain developed a heightened political consciousness which was almost entirely based on Irish events, rather than on their own experiences in their 'home' community. Denvir himself contributed significantly to this expression of a distinct Irish cultural and political identity by publishing a series of penny booklets in the 1870's in his 'Irish Library'. These were sold by the thousands at the time but are extremely rare today. I've had to look in the British Library catalogue to find a list of his titles and I've shown them below to indicate how 'Irishness' was being expressed at the time.
Denvir's Penny Library, later issued as Denvir's Penny illustrated Irish Library
Published in Liverpool in two volumes in a monthly series, 1873-1874
No. 1 Ireland: her monks at home & abroad. Richard J. O'Neill
No. 2 Catechism of Irish history. John Francis MacArdle
No. 3 The Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 4 The Second Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 5 The Third Book of Irish Poetry. John Denvir
No. 6 Biography of Marshal MacMahon, Duke of Magenta. W.J. Ashton
No. 7 The red hand of Ulster; or, The captive chief of Tyrconnell. John Denvir
No. 8 The life of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan. John Hand
No. 9 The life of O'Connell.
No. 10 How Ned Joyce went to his own funeral.
No. 11 The Life of Robert Emmet. John Hand
No.12 A wreath of Irish song and story
Vol. 2 No. 13 What is home rule? Hugh Heinrick
Vol. 2 No. 14 The camp fires of the legion in the late Franco-Prussian war. J. Lysaght Finigan
Vol. 2 No. 15 Hugh O'Neill, the great Ulster chieftain. Slieve Donard
Vol. 2 No. 16 Rosaleen Dhu; or, The twelve pins of bin-a-bola: an Irish drama in three acts. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 17 The story of '98. Ross E. Trevor
Vol. 2 No. 18 Home rule ballads. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 19 Irish street ballads. John Hand
Vol. 2 No. 20 The Irish in England. Hugh Heinrick
Vol. 2 No. 21 The Irish in the United States of America. John Denvir
Vol. 2 No. 22 Brian Boru and the Danish invasion. Daniel Crilly
Vol. 2 No. 23 "God save Ireland!" or, The rescue of Kelly & Deasey. Slieve Donard
Vol.2 No. 24 Our Irish Christmas garland
"Slieve Donard" was the pen name used by John Denvir
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Celebrating the last shantyman
Last weekend, November 18 &19, a large and very loud group of singers met in Liverpool to wish a happy hundredth birthday to the last of the working shantymen, Stan Hugill. Stan may have died in 1992, but his spirit was very emphatically present at this celebration of the songs of the sea which he did so much to preserve.
Stan was born on the other side of the Mersey at the Coastguard station in Hoylake, Cheshire in 1906 where his father was one of the Coastguards. His father and grandfather were both singers, and their songs were written down in notebooks which were passed down to Stan. The family moved to other stations before returning to Liverpool where Stan finished his schooling, and from where he began his sailing career in the early 1920's. On board the last of the commercial sailing ships Stan learned the work songs of the sailors; the shanties which accompanied the heavy tasks of heaving and hauling. Stan was the shantyman on the Garthpool, the last British four-masted bark, which was wrecked off Cape Verde in 1929. After further adventures ashore and at sea, including four years in a German POW camp, Stan became an instructor at the Outward Bound School at Aberdovey, Wales from 1950 to 1975.
It was during a period of enforced rest from his work at the School following a broken leg that Stan began to research sea shanties, the results of which he published in 1961 in the magisterial "Shanties from the Seven Seas". The book met an enthusiastic response in the atmosphere of the post-war British Folk Revival, and Stan himself found an welcoming audience for his songs in the folk clubs during the Sixties and later. To his delight and surprise the new generation were able to replicate the rough and ready sound of a ship's crew that to his ears was nearly as good the original. In Liverpool the Spinners folk group especially found inspiration from Stan, and he wrote regular articles in his 'Bosun's Locker' column for 'Spin' magazine. A group of Liverpool singers, Stormalong John, sang with Stan frequently, most memorably perhaps at the 1984 Garden Festival. Until his death in 1992 Stan travelled all over the world inspiring new audiences with the real salt flavour of shanties. This weekend in Liverpool was a chance for the younger generation to pay tribute to Stan.
As yet there is no memorial to Stan where the old Coastguard Cottages once stood in Hoylake; perhaps his songs and his books are his best memorial, but he well deserves some kind of permanent tribute in Wirral or in the port city of Liverpool.
Matthew Edwards
Stan was born on the other side of the Mersey at the Coastguard station in Hoylake, Cheshire in 1906 where his father was one of the Coastguards. His father and grandfather were both singers, and their songs were written down in notebooks which were passed down to Stan. The family moved to other stations before returning to Liverpool where Stan finished his schooling, and from where he began his sailing career in the early 1920's. On board the last of the commercial sailing ships Stan learned the work songs of the sailors; the shanties which accompanied the heavy tasks of heaving and hauling. Stan was the shantyman on the Garthpool, the last British four-masted bark, which was wrecked off Cape Verde in 1929. After further adventures ashore and at sea, including four years in a German POW camp, Stan became an instructor at the Outward Bound School at Aberdovey, Wales from 1950 to 1975.
It was during a period of enforced rest from his work at the School following a broken leg that Stan began to research sea shanties, the results of which he published in 1961 in the magisterial "Shanties from the Seven Seas". The book met an enthusiastic response in the atmosphere of the post-war British Folk Revival, and Stan himself found an welcoming audience for his songs in the folk clubs during the Sixties and later. To his delight and surprise the new generation were able to replicate the rough and ready sound of a ship's crew that to his ears was nearly as good the original. In Liverpool the Spinners folk group especially found inspiration from Stan, and he wrote regular articles in his 'Bosun's Locker' column for 'Spin' magazine. A group of Liverpool singers, Stormalong John, sang with Stan frequently, most memorably perhaps at the 1984 Garden Festival. Until his death in 1992 Stan travelled all over the world inspiring new audiences with the real salt flavour of shanties. This weekend in Liverpool was a chance for the younger generation to pay tribute to Stan.
As yet there is no memorial to Stan where the old Coastguard Cottages once stood in Hoylake; perhaps his songs and his books are his best memorial, but he well deserves some kind of permanent tribute in Wirral or in the port city of Liverpool.
Matthew Edwards
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