Three cheers for the red and the white and the blue,

                                Three cheers for the red and the white and the blue,

                                And we'll hoist the flag above the "broo",

                                Three cheers for the red and the white and the blue.

 

                                Chorus :

                                Wi' a hundred thousand umemployed,

                                Wi' a hundred thousand unemployed,

                                We surely should be overjoyed

                                Wi' a hundred thousand unemployed.

 

                                We're a' goin' on the N.A.B.,

                                We're a' goin' on the N.A.B.,

                                So praise the Lord that we are free,

                                We're a' goin' on the N.A.B.

 

                                We'll beat the English and a' and a',

                                We'll beat the English and a' and a',

                                For sure they'll no have as many, at a',

                                We'll beat the English and a' and a'.

 

 

Footnote : One of the most entertaining singer/songwriters on the Scottish Folk circuit was Matt McGinn ( 1928-1977 ). Oliver Brown winner and fellow folksinger Jimmie Macgregor wrote of Matt - ' To those that knew him Matt McGinn's untimely death brought a great sense of loss, the feeling that never again would we meet such a wonderful combination of vibrancy and compassion. But the rare spirit that was McGinn will never die, for it lives on in his songs.'

 

I had the pleasure of promoting many Folk Nights with Matt McGinn and this was the first, of his many songs, that I came across in 'Scottish Folk Notes' ( 1963 ). At the time Scottish unemployment was rising fast under a Westminster Conservative Government, a fact which Matt attacked with his usual humour and a sense of irony.