THE EVICTIONS - (Pat Gallagher)
As recorded by Goats Don't Shave on "The Rusty Razor" (1992)

Spoken – "Lo in the wilds of Donegal, where heather bloom is bred,
round lake and cliff, on moor and mean, onto the mountains head.
Our cabin homes, our natal homes our kindred's homes were they.
Lay ruined by the minions of the spoiler of Glenveagh

1. My name it is Sweeney; a father of two sons I am,
A cottier tenant like many a true mountain man.
My wife fell to famine and my heart will never repair,
But worse was to come in the form of a John George Adair.

2. The news in the valley a stranger had bought up the land,
Soon twenty-eight thousand acres he would command,
But we were to learn that the blood in his body ran cold,
For the suffering of the poor was John Adair 's goal.

CHORUS: The hills and the mountains know your name.
The deer even hang their heads in shame.
And even the longest winter's rain
Can't wash away all the suffering and pain
Of the evictions at Derryveagh.

3. You swore on us lies; you had us arrested and jailed
For the murder of Murray your agent, but justice prevailed,
But vengeance was feasting inside of your cold Scottish heart,
So the notice was given, people and land they must part.

4. One morning in April 1861,
Two hundred soldiers, their bayonets shone in the sun.
Led by the sheriff, they marched with the crowbar brigade,
And a widow, six daughters, a son, first homeless were made. CHORUS

Two hundred and forty-four people made homeless that day,
While John Adair's castle was planned for the shores of Loch Veagh,
Some to the poorhouse, some to Australia's shore,
But all said goodbye to a homeland they'd see never more. CHORUS