ANOTHER OUTRAGE
Songwriter unknown by me

Another outrage on the news last night:
A soldier killed, all your neighbours uptight.
Turned out of your local for the good of your health,
As if you'd pulled the trigger yourself.
I sat with Martin in a pub that night,
Old Kilkenny, and his eyes shone bright.
We sang some songs and they made him cry,
Put down his drink and dried his eyes.
Says: "All this killing's an awful disgrace",
While he spoke the tears stained his face,
Couldn't finish what he was trying to say,
We understood him fine anyway.

CHORUS:

800 years and it's not over yet,
Think of the pain and the lies we've been fed,
And above all the tears and the blood
So senselessly shed.

Born in a country that's never your own
Of immigrant parents who've left their own homes,
Those little comments that leave you cold,
Just a foretaste of what's to come,
Like "your father's Pat and your mother's Biddy,
And if you can't share the joke son, that's just a pity".
This humour they find so great,
Born of centuries of hate.

The news from Ireland is savage and sad,
And over here they think the Irish are mad,
These Troubles they'll ne'er understand:
It wasn't us who partitioned the land.
Centuries have passed and still we're oppressed
By cruel jokes and ignorance often expressed,
And a system that's made being Irish you'd think an offence.
I've prayed and I've cursed, words spat from my tongue,
All this would end and that a time would come
When songs like this needn't be written and needn't be sung,

CHORUS

So senselessly shed.

INSTR. OUTRO

From the album Hung up and Dry by Afterhours. Anyone know who wrote it please? I don't have the inlay card for my tape.

I tried posting these lyrics a few days ago, but they don't seem to have reached the DT. Maybe I did it wrong- still new! I hope it wasn't censored- it's not advocating violence; quite the opposite, in fact. It's too good a song, both lyrically and musically (great tune, and instrumental outro) to be buried, simply because times have changed (despite the end of the last verse!).

There's a generation of children growing up who won't remember the horrors of The Troubles (I always thought that term was a massive understatement). They shouldn't be forgotten, for fear they will be repeated. Songs such as this, and There were Roses (also done by Afterhours- sadly now defunct) may influence future generations. Sometimes it is better to live under a regime you don't agree with (as many of us English do), than to have years of tears and "blood so senselessly shed". And that's all I'm going to say about that!

JB