Showing posts with label folk music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folk music. Show all posts

Sunday, February 26, 2017

#RESIST :: It Won't Take Long, Ferron




They said some men would be warriors and some men would be kings
And some men would be owners of land and other man-made things
And false love as the eternal flame would move some to think in
rings
And gold would be our power and other foolish things
But you who dream of liberty must not yourselves be fooled
Before you get to plea for freedom, you've agreed to being ruled
If the body stays a shackle then the mind remains a chain
That'll link you to a destiny whereby all good souls are slain
And it won't take long, it won't take too long at all
It won't take long, and you may say
"What has that got to do with me" and I say,
"You mean to tell me that's all?"
Of three men in a desert wandering, one is knowing and two are
scared
They say time is in the river, but the river is not there
Dry in spirit dry in body two will lend themselves to death
And in grief one weeps into his hands and drinks his bitter
tears
'Cause it don't take long, it don't take too long at all
It don't take long, and you may say,
"I don't know what you're talking about, " and I say
"You mean to tell me that's all?"
And as I stand before you now, I am hopeful in my rage
You know love has finally called for me, I will not wilt upon
its stage
But still smaller than my nightmare now do I print upon the page
Do we have to live inside its walls to identify the cage?
'Cause it takes so long, why does it take so long,
But it takes so long, and you may say,
"I don't really care what you're talking about, " and I say,
"Are you trying to say you don't belong?"
I am my mother's daughter, but I have seen myself in you
It's this blessing that I follow now, and so I must speak true
I dreamed of thousands dying, it was you and you and you,
And while the city sleeps so quietly there is something we must
do
And it won't take long, it won't take too long at all,
It won't take long, and you may say,
"I don't know if I want to know what you're getting at, "
And it makes we want to say, "So long."
Because grief will come in measures, only grief alone will know
And you'll see it on your family, on your own face it will grow
And they'll try to keep you hungry, then they'll tell you to eat
snow
You know pride can be a moving thing if we learn the strength of
"NO!"
And it won't take long, it won't take too long at all,
It won't take long, and you may say,
"I don't think this has anything to do with me, "
"But did you ever think you could be wrong?"
At noon on one day coming, human strength will fill the streets
Of every city on our planet, hear the sound of angry feet
With business freezed up in the harbour, the kings will pull
upon their
hair
And the banks will shudder to a halt, and the artists will be
there
'Cause it won't take long, it won't take too long at all,
It won't take long, and you may say,
"I don't think I can be a part of that, " and it makes me want to
say,
"Don't you want to see yourself that strong?"
Division between the peoples will disappear that honoured day
And though oceans lie between us, lifted candles light the way
Half will join their hands by moonlight, the rest under a rising
sun
As underneath the sun and moon, a ritual'd wailing has begun
And it won't take long, it won't take too long at all,
It won't take long, and you may say,
"I don't know how to be a part of what you're talking about, "
and it makes
me want to say, "Come on!"
And beware you sagging diplomats, for you will not hear one gun
And though our homes be torn and ransacked we will not be undone
For as we let ourselves be bought, we're going to let ourselves
be free
And if you think we stand alone, look again and you will see:
We are children in the rafters, we are babies in the park,
We are lovers at the movies, we are candles in the dark,
We are changes in the weather, we are snowflakes in July,
We are women grown together, we are men who easily cry,
We are words not quickly spoken, we're the deeper side of try,
We are dreamers in the making, we are not afraid of "Why?"

Written by Ferron Foisy • Copyright © BMG Rights Management US, LLC


Monday, December 7, 2015

GlÓR NA HAOISE - Songs of Solidarity and Resistence



We all know the story of how Royal Dutch Shell bullied the people from An Ros Dumhach (Rossport).

Last saturday Rónán Ó Snodaigh played a concert in An Taibhdhearc in Galway for the launch of 'GlÓR NA HAOISE - Songs of Solidarity and Resistence' - a lavish and beautifully presented 3-cd collection celebrating the on-going campaign of civil disobedience.

The back cover of the cd has a quote from the singer and storyteller Liam Clancy - 'Written history is nothing more than the propaganda of the victors. If you want the real history you'll have to go to the folksongs.'

This 3-cd collection is just that - folksongs - from Francis Black, Mickey Coleman Singer/Songwriter Tyrone Ireland, Noelle MacDonnell, Margaretta D'Arcy, Paranoid Visions, Camilla Cantata, Mick Blake, Donal Finn, The Living Stream, Mícheál Ó Séighin, Jinx Lennon, Sinéad Uí Fhaoláín, Sean Cregan, Captain A, Sorcha Fox, Breeda Murphy, Louis de Paor agus John Spillane, Dr Owens Wiwa, Catriona Murphy, The People of Ogoniland, Astrid Ní Mhongáín, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Finbar Cafferkey, John Hoban, Fintan Vallely, Éamon Ó Súilleabháin agus Seosamh Mac Donnacha, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Donal O'Kelly, Chris Duignan, Tara Sheehy, Barry Johnston, Damhnait de Brún, Queen elvis, Cormac Lally, Kevin Burke (musician) & Ged Foley, Treasa Elsafty, Ethel Corduff, Din de Paor, Gréagóir Ó Dúill, Rita Ann Higgins, Breandán Ó Beaglaoich, Esse Egesse, The Rebel Souls, Indica, Cian Finn, Barry Krishna, Lee Barley & the Rossport Solidarity Camp, Colm Henry & Wildfire, Rosemary Woods, Leo Moran & Anto Thistlethwaite, The Latchiko's, Áine Uí Fhoghlú, Pete Mullineux, Sarah Clancy, Lee Barley, An Galar Dub, This Natchez, Niamh N Lochlainn, ian Lynch, Damien Dempsey.
'Nuff said!



via Kila on Facebook
Contemporary Irish Music - Trad meets Irish Rave and back again...
Hometown: Dublin originally now throughout Ireland!
web: kila.ie


GLÓR NA HAOISE
SONGS OF SOLIDARITY

In the autumn of 2011 shell announced in their monthly newsletter ‘corrib gas update’ that the tunnel boring machine (tbm) which was to bore under sruth mhada chonn estuary had been built, and was soon to arrive in erris. In naming the machine, they declared, ‘fionnuala has been chosen, in honour of the legend of the children of lir, which has a strong local resonance’.

Fionnuala, of the children of lir, who, along with her three brothers, spent their last 300 years on the waters of iorras domnann (erris). And fionnuala, shell’s tunnel boring machine, weighing in at nearly 500 tonnes. A behemoth to dredge through ancestral memories. In appropriating the name of fionnuala, shell would have us fall under a spell. An amnesia of forgetting and accepting. That which destroys the old myth becomes the new myth. A response was called for.  And so it was that ‘glór na haoise’ came to be, to reclaim, restore and give voice to the pain and indignation felt by the people of northwest mayo and to celebrate their long stand for truth and justice.

Each song and poem tells its own unique part of the story of the struggle. They tell of the arrival of enterprise oil and its successor royal dutch shell, and of the early years of the shell to sea campaign. They tell of the jailing of the rossport five now ten years past and of the execution, with the connivance of shell, of nigerian activist ken saro-wiwa twenty years ago.

They speak of the potentially lethal attacks on local farmer willie corduff, who was assaulted by several balaclaved men while lying under a shell truck in protest, and of fisherman pat o’donnell,  whose boat was boarded and sunk also by masked men, an event the gardaí failed to investigate adequately, and for which no-one was ever held accountable. They tell of the arrival of shell’s pipe-laying ship the solitaire, and the hunger strike of shell to sea campaigner maura harrington. Of the arrival off the coast of two irish navy gunboats and hundreds of gardaí and private security, all to surround and repress a small community of campaigners. They tell of garda brutality, courtroom lies, booze and bribes. They sing of the indomitable spirit of the rossport solidarity camp, their actions, sit-ins, lock-ons and laughter. And of the journey, arrival, sinking and resurrection of  shell's tunnel boring machine in the boglands of gleann na muaigh.

They sing of freedom and of the beauty of erris,

in celebration, we remember…

songsofsolidarity.com