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