Mike Ladd’s “Blackstone Cúil”: An Excerpt + Live at Boland’s
If you’ve read Pints and Power, you’ve already met Mike Ladd and felt the pull of a song that lands like a story you somehow remember. In the book, Mike’s “Blackstone Cúil” celebrates the Irish who helped build America during the Industrial Revolution, carrying the weight of struggle and the stubborn promise of hope that became the Irish diaspora.
An excerpt from the the book
A CANAL, A CORNER, AND A HOME TO THE PINT
Worcester, Massachusetts is a city that rarely makes the headlines but has always been at the crossroads. It also happens to be the home of my local—Boland’s Bar and Patio.
Set midway between Boston and Providence, Worcester rose in the 19th century as a manufacturing hub tied first to the Blackstone Canal and then the Boston & Worcester Railroad. Irish laborers—first canal diggers, then railroad crews—laid down more than stone and track. They laid down a community. By the late 1800s, Worcester had one of the largest Irish Catholic populations in New England.
Today, Worcester still carries that legacy. The city remains a stronghold of Irish culture, proud of its parades, pubs, and diaspora threads that run across generations. It is here, in this unlikely but enduring Irish corner of New England, that the Guinness story takes root in ways both historic and personal. But the Irish pride Worcester shows every year on the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day stands in stark contrast to what the Irish first faced when they arrived.
Worcester’s Irish identity began with a man named Tobias Boland...
Hearing it live at Boland’s
I’m lucky. I get to see Mike and his band perform regularly at Boland’s, and last night he closed the night with that very song. It hit differently in the room, not as a history lesson, but as a lived thing. A reminder that the story of work, leaving, building, and belonging is still in our bones.
Watch the performance (YouTube)
Hit play on the video below.
Watch a full performance of "Blackstone Cúil" from the Ladd Trio captured at Boland's in Worcester, Massahusetts
If you want the full story behind the song, Pints and Power is where it starts.
Find out how you can get your own copy of Pints and Power.
Pull up a stool, and SETTLE in, this pint won’t drink itself.
— Mike
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