Irish ways and Irish Laws

<br>Once upon a time there were<br>Irish Ways and Irish Laws<br>Villages of Irish blood<br>Waking to the morning<br>Waking to the morning<br><br>Then the Vikings came around (1)<br>Turned us up and turned us down<br>Started building boats and towns<br>They tried to change our living<br>tried to change our living<br> <br>Cromwell and his soldiers came (2)<br>Started centuries of shame<br>But they could not make us turn (3)<br>We are a river flowing<br>We`re a river flowing<br><br>Again, again the soldiers came<br>Burnt our houses stole our grain<br>Shot the farmers in their fields<br>Working for livings<br>Working for a living<br><br>800 years we have been down (4)<br>The secret of the water sound<br>Has kept the spirit of a man<br>Above the pain descending<br>Above the pain descending<br><br>Today the struggle carries on<br>I wonder will I live so long<br>To see the gates being opened up (5)<br>To a people and their freedom<br>A people and their freedom<br><br>Once upon a time there was<br>Irish Ways and Irish Laws<br>Villages of Irish blood<br>Waking to the morning<br>Waking to the morning<br> <br><br>Notes<br><br>(1)<br>The first documented Viking landing took place in 795. Until the <br>Anglo-Norman invasion in 1170 the Vikings would play an important <br>role in Ireland, both politically and economically. They created trade <br>routes, founded kingdoms, and built the first towns in Ireland, <br>including Dublin, Cork and Limerick.<br><br>(2) <br>Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649 at the head of a <br>huge army, by May 1650 he had crushed opposition in all but the West.<br>(By 1652 the Irish population had fallen to .7 m. In 1641 it had <br>been 1.5 m. By 1660 .5 m cattle were being exported annually to <br>England.)<br><br>(3)<br>Both Cromwell`s and subsequent colonisation campaigns used the twin <br>techniques of &quot;planting&quot; English and Scotish settlers and forcing <br>some locals to change or &quot;Turn&quot; their religion to the Protestant <br>faith. So here he uses the ambiguity of the term &quot;turn&quot; to echo both <br>the image of the unbowed Irish peasant and a metaphor for Irish <br>History flowing like a un-turnable river.<br><br>(4)<br>Since the first English invasion in 1170<br><br>(5) <br>&quot;Gates&quot; here evokes both images of the be-sieged walled cities of the <br>17th century and also of the present day prison camps in the North <br>of Ireland which at the time the song was being written (in the late <br>1970`s early 1980`s) were the subject of much political campaigning <br>including Hunger Strikes by the inmates.