You can now listen to it Holding Out Against The Light by Ewan McLennan on the Folk Radio site: http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2016/07/ewan-mclennan-session-holding-night/ The train rolled out in the morning Hard jagged peaks pressed the sky And my thoughts flickered back to you, love Far from the land passing by Remember the flowers on the hill, love Blues and yellows lit the scene I picked one and pressed it in my pocket Until I'm home I'll keep it close to me A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night We were stationed first in Barcelona Before we departed for the front Through the streets the senioritas wandered And songs of freedom rang out with the guns There were voices there from all over Marseilles, Dublin and Cologne Down in the drill-yards and the cafes There was talk of a new world being born A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night The call came to leave one Sunday morning We laced our leather boots for Aragon John O' Flynn from county Tipperary Sang us all an Irish marching song We sang to the hope of the morning We sang to the trembling skies at night There, we called each other comrade And 'no pasaran' was the cry A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night Some things are just too harsh to speak of The stones lay withered in the flames The cold-ash colour of the tunics Marked where the red clay bared the names How the sun beat down without mercy How the wind-scattered sands stung the eyes Quiet fell at night upon the foothills As life left the embers of the fires A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night We all rose for La Passionara As she addressed us from the quay She said, 'is it not better to die fighting' 'Than live forever on our knees?' We sang to the hope of the morning We sang to trembling skies at night There, we called each other comrade And 'no pasaran' was the cry A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night A match is struck, a lamp throws its light Holding out against the night
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