I first heard this song in a youth club off Trafalgar Square in the early seventies. Before going to London I had narrowly escaped one of the Dublin bombs (in Talbot Street, allegedly carried out by the UVF assisted by elements in British intelligence). Even back then we suspected British military collusion--it was no coincidence that a vote on security was taking place in the Dail at that time. I had also travelled around Northern Ireland on behalf of a youth organisation and been stopped, searched and generally hassled several times by the soldiers. The place was crawling with them--everywhere I went there were guns pointing at me. I couldn't forget that these, or their colleagues, had been responsible for Bloody Sunday.

London was my first stop on a planned world tour. It was a relatively difficult time for the Irish in the UK (it got worse later). Friends of mine had been attacked at work, others hassled leaving Irish pubs by police, the situation was tense. On the evening I arrived in the club I got into a blazing row with the organizers due to their current newsletter, which consisted mainly of "Irish" jokes, showing just how thick the Irish were--in short, racist. I broke off the discussion and went to listen to the music and chill out. Then I heard this song. I felt sick. I left and never went back.