(o'connor, clayton, simenon, reynolds)



[the extended version of "famine", released in 1995, from the cd-single "famine"]



There is more in us than we know about. the famine, which happened 150 years ago.

It’s three lifetimes at most. things that happen than were handed on from father

To son, from mother to daughter, down to this day. they are within us now, and we

Don’t deal with them. and it seems to me, this is what’s interesting about a lot

Of irish music now, that it is the carrier for this kind of feeling, and for this

Kind of emotion, that we have no other expression for it because politically we

Deny it, intellectually we deny it. our literature ....... doesn’t deal with this,

Our sentiment doesn’t deal with this. but music, it’s in the music, it seems to me.

The culture can actually carry those things in al kinds of visible ways, in gesture,

In movement, in language, in humour and in music.



Okay, i want to talk about ireland

Specifically i want to talk about the "famine"

About the fact that there never really was one

There was no "famine"

See irish people were only allowed to eat potatoes

All of the other food, meat, fish, vegetables,

Were shipped out of the country under armed guard

To england while the irish people starved

And then in the middle of all this

They gave us money not to teach our children irish

And so we lost our history

And this is what i think is still hurting me



You see we're like a child that's been battered

Has to drive itself out of it's head because it's frightened

Still feels all the painful feelings

But they lose contact with the memory

And this leads to massive self-destruction

Alcoholism, drug addiction

All desperate attempts at running

And in it's worst form

Becomes actual killing

And if there ever is gonna be healing

There has to be remembering

And then grieving

So that there then can be forgiving

There has to be knowledge and understanding



All the lonely people

Where do they all come from

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong



An american army regulation

Says you mustn't kill more than ten percent of a nation

'cos to do so causes permanent "psychological damage"

It's not permanent but they didn't know that

Anyway during the supposed "famine"

We lost a lot more than 10% of our nation

Through deaths on land or on ships of emigration

But what finally broke us is not starvation

No it's use in the controlling of our education

School go on about "black 47"

On and on about "the terrible famine"

But what they don't say is in truth

There really never was one



All the lonely people

Where do they all come from

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong



So let's take a look can we

The highest statistics of child abuse in the eec

And we say we're a christian country

But we've lost contact with our history

See we used to worship god as a mother

We're suffering from post traumatic stress disorder

Look at all our old men in the pubs

Look at all our young people on drugs

We used to worship god as a mother

Now look at what we're doing to each other

We've even made killers of ourselves

The most child-like trusting people in the universe

And this is what's wrong with us

Our history books the parent figures lied to us

I see the irish

As a race like a child

That got itself smashed in the face

And if there ever is gonna be healing

There has to be remembering

And then grieving

So that there then can be forgiving

There has to be knowledge and understanding



All the lonely people

Where do they all come from

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from

(that i can tell you in one word)

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong



And if there ever is gonna be healing

There has to be remembering

And then grieving

So that there then can be forgiving

There has to be knowledge and understanding



And if there ever is gonna be healing

There has to be remembering

And then grieving

So that there then can be forgiving

There has to be knowledge and understanding



We stand on the brink of a great achievement

In this ireland there is no solution

To be found to our disagreements

By shooting each other



Because of our tradition everyone here knows who he is

And what god expects him to do



Forgiveness, forgiveness

Knowledge

Yes

And understanding



Forgiveness

Equate, be driven

Frogiveness

Knowledge

Yes

And understanding



(repeat the above several times)


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