So many great songs have been mentioned but the one that always gets to me is Tom Lewis's song, "Some Mother's Son" which is included on his CD, "Mixed Cargo", apparently written in response to the murder of Jean McConville:

There's some mother's son on her doorstep lies bleeding,
with no one to give him the comfort he's needing,
And sure as her God's high above in His heaven,
with ten kids already, this one makes eleven,
Though he's wearing a uniform she ought to hate,
she cradles his poor head and seals her own fate -

For the one thing that binds us, when all's said and done -
every man dying is some mother's son.

Then twelve of her neighbours, apostles from hell,
tore her from her family, no time for: "Farewell",
No 'ashes to ashes' and no 'dust to dust',
no loving remembrance, this cannot be just,
She had daughters and sons, a family who loved her,
she was sentenced to death just for being a mother,

But the one thing that binds us, when all's said and done -
every man dying is some mother's son.

Somewhere there's a family who owe her a life,
a one-time young squaddie with kids and a wife,
When she thought he was dying she chose love and pity,
a terrible crime in this desperate city,
For when some mother's son on her doorstep lay bleeding
she knelt down to give him the comfort he was needing,

Now the one thing that binds us, when all's said and done -
every man dying is some mother's son.

I am also always brought to tears by David Francey's song, "Flowers of Saskatchewan".