The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3042   Message #14395
Posted By: Wolfgang Hell
10-Oct-97 - 09:48 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Only Our Rivers Run Free (M MacConnell)
Subject: Lyr Add: ONLY OUR RIVERS RUN FREE (M MacConnell)
A song I miss in the database. It has been recorded by many folk groups and singers. Source: Songs of Resistance 1968-1975 (kind of IRA songbook)

ONLY OUR RIVERS RUN FREE (a.k.a.: Only our rivers, Only her rivers run free) (Michael MacConnell)

When apples still grow in November,
When blossom remains on each tree,
When leaves are still green in December,
It's then that our land will be free.
I wander her hills and her valleys
And still to my sorrow I see
A land that has never known freedom
Where only her rivers run free.

I drink to the death of her manhood,
To those men who would rather have died
Than to live in the cold chains of bondage.
To bring back the rights we're denied.
Oh, where are you now when we need you?
What burns where the flame used to be?
Are you gone like the snow of last winter
And will only our rivers run free?

How sweet is life, but we're crying,
How mellow the wine, yet we're dry,
How fragrant the rose, but it's dying,
How gentle the wind, yet it sighs.
What good is in youth, when you're aging?
What joy is in eyes that can see
That there is sorrow in sunshine and flowers
If only our rivers run free.

Wolfgang