Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin Blaws the cloods heelster-gowdie ower the bay But there’s mair than a roch wind blawin Ower the great glen o the world the day. It’s a thocht that wad gar oor rottens Aa they rogues that ging gallus fresh and gay Tak the road and seek ither loanins Fer their ill ploys tae sport an play
Nae mair will the bonnie callants Mairch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw Nor wee weans fae pit-heid an clachan Mourn the ships sailin doon the Broomielaw Broken families in lands we’ve herriet Will curse Scotland the Brave nae mair, nae mair Black and white yin till ither mairriet Maks the vile barracks o their maisters bare
So come aa ye at hame wi Freedom Never heed whit yon hoodie croaks fer doom In yer hoose aa the bairns o Adam Will find breid, barley bree an paintet room When McLean meets wi his freens in Springburn Aa they roses an geans will turn tae bloom An a black boy fae oot Nyanga Dings the fell gallows o the burghers doon
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FREEDOM COME A’ YE by Hamish Henderson
During the early 1960s the Clyde and Dunoon were the scenes of many demonstrations against the arrival of Site 1, the US Navy’s nuclear base on the Holy Loch.
Hamish Henderson wrote what was to become one of his best known and most beautiful songs ‘Freedom Come A’ Ye, dedicating it ‘for the Glasgow Peace Marchers, May 1960’ it is sung to Hamish’s adaptation of the pipe tune ‘The Bloody Fields of Flanders’. by Dunoon born Pipe Major John (Jock) McLellan DCM The words are in Scots, yet the meaning is clear to all, and the song endures now the ‘Roch wind’ is depicted as sweeping away oppression and war over the whole world.