{"id":5046,"date":"2020-06-25T22:58:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T02:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5046"},"modified":"2020-06-25T23:00:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T03:00:17","slug":"episode-74-who-were-these-miners-their-lives-were-poornasty-briutish-and-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5046","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 74 WHO WERE THESE MINERS? THEIR LIVES WERE “POOR,NASTY, BRIUTISH AND SHORT.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
episode 74    BUNMAHON AND  IRELAND     A  MINERS LIFE WAS \u2018POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH  AND SHORT\u2019 1840 TO 1875<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2020<\/div>\n

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The adits  are empty.  The shafts are silent.  The stopes are as hollow as the tombs of<\/div>\n
ancient Egypt.  And as  hidden.  AND AS EMPTY.<\/div>\n

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Well that is  not quite true.  We know quite a  lot about the miners of Knockmahon and<\/div>\n
Tankarsdstown.   Several years after our survey work overtop the old mines<\/div>\n
the area  suddenly became a tourist attraction calle the Copper Coast.  Much<\/div>\n
credit for this goes to Des Cowman, an historian who delved  into the mines and<\/div>\n
put flesh and  bone on the miners.   They were an  almost invisible lot of men since<\/div>\n
few if any could read or write.  They had no time for such  a luxury.<\/div>\n

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They were an underfed unhealthy lot.   Poverty stricken.  The Bunmahon region of<\/div>\n
County Waterford was described as wretched.  A place where life was short\u2026<\/div>\n
A miner would be lucky to reach the age of 50.  Some old men (i.e. 50 year olds)<\/div>\n
were working deep in Knockmahon mine because the records identified three<\/div>\n
kinds of  miners climbed the ladders out of the pit..or into the pit.<\/div>\n

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Young men first either up or down.   Then older men but physically fit would<\/div>\n
go second.  And finally the old  men minters last.<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n
THESE MEN ARE PUTTING ON A BIT OF SHOW WITH THEIR CANDLES. .. CANDLES<\/div>\n
WERE THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIGHT FOR THE BUNMAHON  MINERS.<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n

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Climbing these ladders was dangerous.  Why?  Because there was  no light\u2026no<\/div>\n
lamp, no light at all.   The miners  had to feel their way  down.  depths of 800 to 1,000<\/div>\n
metres.  In the dark\u2026one man following the other.  Miners  At the level they<\/div>\n
were expected to begin mixing there was some light but not much.  Each  miner<\/div>\n
bought cheap  candles from the mine owners.  With flickering  candles the miners<\/div>\n
drilled holes in the rock face with hammers and sharpened iron bars.  They paid  the owners<\/div>\n
to sharpen the iron barts\u2026just as they paid for the candles.  When a punched hole<\/div>\n
was deep enough the lead miner of the six man crew would stuff the hole <\/div>\n
with gunpowder then seal it with clay in which a wick was inserted. A warning bell<\/div>\n
was rung\u2026the men moved back from the rock face\u2026well back.  The gunpowder<\/div>\n
exploded filling the stope with thick black smoke and pieces of rock dust.  The smoke<\/div>\n
was so thick  that the candles light was reduced to a few inches.   The miners fanned<\/div>\n
the smoke away to see what ore had been blasted.  They needed to be very<\/div>\n
close to the facing wall to see if they had  loosened rich ore from the seam<\/div>\n
or just rock.<\/div>\n

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Miners in the copper mines of Bunmahon  were lucky.  There was  no methane<\/div>\n
gas to explode and  kill them like there was in the coal mines of Wales<\/div>\n
and  Northern England  and Scotland.  But the luck was early worth noting<\/div>\n
as they breathed in  the tiny shards  of rock dust which began to grind<\/div>\n
their lungs into bloody pulp.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
CORNISH COPPER MINERS IN 1912\u2026THE BUNMAHON MINERS WERE A ROUGHER <\/div>\n
LOOKING LOT OF MEN\u2026SOME OF WHOM CAME FROM CORNWALL.  THE KNOCKMAHON<\/div>\n
MINE OPERATE FROM 1840 TO 1875.  THEE MEN LOOK HEALTHY.  THE MINERS OF<\/div>\n
BUNMAHON LOOKED SICKLY.<\/div>\n

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TO BE  CONTINUEDIf you would like to learn more about geology in general, take a look at the<\/span> <\/span>website<\/a> of the geological survey of Ireland which has lots of great information to get you started.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

episode 74    BUNMAHON AND  IRELAND     A  MINERS LIFE WAS \u2018POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH  AND SHORT\u2019 1840 TO 1875 alan skeoch June 2020 The adits  are empty.  The shafts are silent.  The stopes are as hollow as the tombs of ancient Egypt.  And as  hidden.  AND AS EMPTY. Well that is  not quite true. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}