Andy & Judy

Lyrics

My name is Eliza, and I was 16, with promise of work I sailed ‘cross the sea.
I left Kilkenny, arriving in May, to stand at a loom 14 hours a day.

The Pemberton Mill reached 5 stories high, with more than a hundred girls there by my side,
and many more worked on the floors overhead.
The sounds of that night I will never forget.

She rattled then fell on that cold Winter’s day.
More than a hundred were laid in their graves.
Oh, the greed and misfortune that caused blood to spill
From the total collapse of the Pemberton Mill.

As we were trapped ‘neath the beams and debris, rescuers came to help set us free.
Many were saved when another blow came, a lamp overturned, and she went up in flames.

She rattled then fell on that cold winter’s day.
More than a hundred were laid in their graves.
Oh, the greed and misfortune that caused blood to spill
From the total collapse of the Pemberton Mill.

They pulled me out just before the fire came.
Poor little Margaret, who started that day, she’ll be forever a girl of 14.
Though try as I might I can still hear her screams.

’Tis 40 years hence and not much has changed.
I work at the loom for another man’s gain.
Though they rebuilt, the ghosts lie there still from the total collapse of the Pemberton Mill.

She rattled then fell on that cold winter’s day.
More than a hundred were laid in their graves.
Oh, the greed and misfortune that caused blood to spill
From the total collapse of the Pemberton Mill.
From the total collapse of the Pemberton Mill.