‘Joe Hill (aka Joseph Hillstrom)’ by Joe McVeigh

One of my best friends in college was a fellow by the name of Tom O’Gara from Derry. He was ordained a priest for the Derry diocese and was on the street in the Bogside on Bloody Sunday ministering to the dying. He spent some time afterwards in Pennyburn parish and was then moved to Moville in County Donegal where he was most popular with the people. Tom was a people’s priest. He was well known as a lovely singer of folk songs. Sadly, he died suddenly in 1982. I was very shocked when I heard the news. I had lost one of my best friends. Tom really was a great singer and a good guitar picker. I used to sing with him at concerts in college. One of his favourite songs was ‘The Ballad of Joe Hill’. Apart from the late great Luke Kelly, I do not know anybody who could sing it better than Tom.

Joe Hill (aka Joseph Hillstrom and Joel Emmanuel Hagglund) was born in Gavle, Sweden in 1879 and left there at the age of 23 to seek his fortune in the USA. Joe did not find the US the “land of opportunity” as it was often described. He drifted from job to job, exploited and frustrated. In 1910, he joined a union called ‘the Wobblies’ or the Industrial Workers of the World, dedicated to industrial organisation. He became their song writer, writing songs like ‘Casey Jones-Union Scab’, ‘Rebel Girl’, ‘Preacher and the Slave’.

Then, on January 13^th 1914, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a grocer and his son were killed in a robbery. Joe Hill was arrested and charged with the murder on the coincidence that he himself had been shot on the same night. There was no evidence whatsoever to connect Joe Hill with the murder of the grocer and his son but because he was an effective union organiser he was charged, convicted and sentenced to death. Even President Woodrow Wilson pleaded on his behalf but the Governor of Utah, a Mr William Spry, would not consider a reprieve.

Joe Hill was executed on November 19^th, 1915 by firing squad. On the day of his execution, Joe sent a note to Bill Haywood, the IWW leader, saying: “Goodbye, Bill. I die like a true rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organise.”

According to an entry in Wikipedia: ‘Hill was memorialized in a tribute poem written about him c. 1930 by Alfred Hayes titled “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night”, sometimes referred to simply as “Joe Hill”. Hayes’s lyrics were turned into a song in 1936 by Earl Robinson, who wrote in 1986, “‘Joe Hill’ was written in Camp Unity in the summer of 1936 in New York State, for a campfire program celebrating him and his songs…” Hayes gave a copy of his poem to fellow camp staffer Robinson, who wrote the tune in 40 minutes. Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger often performed this song and are associated with it, along with Irish folk group The Dubliners. Joan Baez‘s Woodstock performance of “Joe Hill” in 1969 (documented on the 1970 documentary and corresponding soundtrack album) is one of the best known recordings. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened their concert in Tampa, Florida with the song’.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me
Says I, “But Joe, you’re ten years dead,”
“I never died,” says he.
“I never died,” says he.”

In Salt Lake, Joe,” says I,
Him standing by my bed,
“They framed you on a murder charge,”
Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead,”
Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead.”

“The copper bosses killed you, Joe,
They shot you, Joe,” says I.
“Takes more than guns to kill a man,”
Says Joe, “I didn’t die,”
Says Joe, “I didn’t die.”

November 19^th is the 101^st anniversary of Joe Hill’s execution.