Don’t Forget Your Shovel - Christy Moore, 1983

The new single from Christy Moore ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’ has a video to accompany it.

Following his departure from band Moving Hearts, folksinger Christy Moore, also a member of the band Planxty, released his solo album ‘The Time Has Come’. The album included a recording of the Kerry-born singer-songwriter Christie Hennessy’s song ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’.

The song is a humorous ode to the Irish navvy in England inspired by Hennessy’s own experiences of labouring on building sites in the United Kingdom. The song was described by one critic as the nearest thing possible to Kerry reggae.

Christy Moore released ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’ as a single, and it became his first big hit, spending seven weeks in the Irish charts. It’s success was partly due to the radio airplay it received from DJ Ronan Collins on his RTÉ Radio 2 breakfast show.

The tongue-in-cheek video features Moore, clad only in sandals and jeans, working with his shovel on an Irish building site.

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 15 July 1983.