“My Shiner” is based on J Thomas’s Randagal Rhymes with an additional verse and set to music by Richard John Noall and included in a pamphlet of songs titled “Cornish Patriotic and Dialect Songs” published in 1934.

Noall (1871-1944) was part of the Cornish Celtic revival in Cornwall in the 1920s. He was one of the founders of the Old Cornwall Society movement and was initiated as a bard of Gorsedh Kernow during the first modern ceremony in 1929 taking the bardic name of Kenteller – collector.[i] He was also a musician and choirmaster and encouraged a revival of interest in traditional Cornish songs and carols alongside of the dialect and patriotic songs of the revival. He arranged and composed number of songs for use by the revival some of which were published in the Old Cornwall Society Journal and some as pamphlets and songs sheets. The St Ives museum hold two collections of his music scores; “Carols and Cornish Folk Songs” dated 1926 with 29 songs; and “Cornish Patriotic and Dialect Songs” dated 1934 with 7 songs.

 

[i] Obituary, The Cornishman – Thursday 27 July 1944, p.5.