Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
Hullo! Hullo! We are the Eskimos
Hullo! Hullo! The Glesca Eskimos
We'll gaff that nyaff ca'd Lanin
And we'll spear him whaur he blows
For we are the Glesca Eskimos

It's up the Clyde came Lanin, a super-duper Yank
He'll gae doon a damn sight quicker when we stap him doon the stank
Up tae the neck in sludge and sewage fairly stops your swank
For we are the Glesca Eskimos

Well it's in an' oot an' up an' doon an' on an' aff the piers
There's cooncillors, collaborators, pimps and profiteers
The hairies jouk the polis, and the polis jouk the queers
We are the Glesca Eskimos

There's dredgers and there's sludgie boats tae keep the river clean
You lift your hand an pu' the chain--ye ken fine what I mean
But why has the Holy Loch been left outside the scheme?
We are the Glesca Eskimos

We've been in mony's a rammy, boys, we've been in mony's a tear
We've sortit oot this kind afore, we'll sort them onywhere
So get yuir harpoons ready, they're comin' up for air
We are the Glesca Eskimos

As sung by The Glasgow Eskimos

Tune: Marching Through Georgia

[1984:] The title stems from Captain Lanin's gaffe in dismissing the Holy Loch demonstrators as "Eskimos", not realising that this race had long been immortalised by the Glasgow children's street song [My Maw's A Millionaire]. The tune is another American one, Marching Through Georgia - but this was already popular in Glasgow as The Brigton Billy Boys, an Orange song! So the Glasgow sectarian songs were drawn into the melée. (Munro, Revival 73f)

[1987:] Back in Glasgow the Anti-Polaris Base movement was in full swing with regular demonstrations at the Holy Loch in Dunoon, [...] and leading this movement was a one-man folk revival called Josh McRae. [His] group was known as the Reivers which after some good recording and TV work broke up leaving Josh on his own to lead off the 'Glasgow Eskimoes' a loose grouping of singers whose concentration was upon getting that Base out of the Clyde. [...] As an outlet for contemporary song the Eskimoes had given and were giving stimulus to the creation of hundreds of songs. (McGinn of the Calton 51 ff.)

[1990:] [Morris Blythman] was criticised for using so many Orange tunes and references in his campaigning songs. [...] Morris and the poet T. S. Law both worked on the song The Glesca Eskimos, which made use of the American Civil War tune Marching Through Georgia. They were reclaiming the tune, which had been used in Glasgow for an Orange song, in which Hurrah, hurrah, we bring the Jubilee became Hullo, hullo, we are the Billy Boys. This is the only example of a political tune I know - several people have been quite agitated at the idea of singing any lyrics at all to this tune in Glasgow, because of its association with Protestant extremism and anti-Catholicism. (McVicar, One Singer One Song 62)

[1994:] Glasgow Herald, 25 May [196?]: "The anti-Polaris demonstrators today lost the last of their thirteen kayaks in the Holy Loch. The depot ship Proteus was held up as she entered the Loch by lone canoeist Sean Edwards who put out from Kilmun where the demonstrators are encamped. Edwards evaded pursuing launches and got within twenty yards of the vessel before being tipped into the water by naval frogmen. At the subsequent press conference, Captain Lanin, the commander of the Proteus, scoffed at the demonstrators. "They don't worry us," he declared. "They're just a bunch of goddam Eskimos." That was a serious tactical error on Lanin's part because back in Springburn the collective mincer held a sort of apres-rammy soiree and sulking [...] (Gordon McCulloch, The Glasgow Eskimos)

[1994:] Janie [Buchan] recalls that many of the Glasgow CND songs were actual parodies of both Orange and green songs. One, modelled on Hello, hello, we are the Billy Boys became Hello, hello, we are the Eskimos. (Geraghty, Luke Kelly 49f)

See also
Words please: Scottish Breakaway