Slaine

Welcome on and all to this city of friction
watch how you walk, talk, and your diction.
people know your background
through pronunciation,
its all part and parcel, paranoid plantation.
no solution through segregation
old No Go Zones with no explanation,
what do you know?
another cessation of violence
and tourists think its amazing.
but if you ask me its the same old game
who's turn is it next
and tell me who is to blame
because i know both sides like to light a flame
on the night before, and so we're all the same
that's why we're taking aim at this sense of shame
that this place gave us, at birth, ingrained.
We're not laying claim, there's no more land to gain
and you wish to god you didn't have a christian name.
so who's your Da? which school did you go to?
whats your last name? as if you're supposed to…
listen to them and do as they say?
Its all part of a damn sectarian survey.

Lords and Ladies
and who they sire
world wide tax
that they acquire
from the Tower of Babel
to cathedral spires
its all part of the same empire

Barbed wire empire x4

To my old friend the city hope you're fairing well
I know a lot has happened and you've been through hell
Came so far but people don't take notice
Think violent protest now part of a process of peace
I fear they'll will never reap
if they never take the time to hear the other side speak
& if the same seeds of hate are planted or sewn
in a young mind without them even knowing
History in context and why the clash
future will be the past divided up Hell-fast
(No relations or songs of unity)
leads to the degradation of both communities
Segregated minds know not what they pray or fight for
Just programmed to justify their own war
How they were bred perspective malleable as lead
Believe what is said now the problem is widespread
& they failed to mention this is not convention
peaceful fute now in contention
I walk away cause we've no come back
but i'll always love this place I can be sure of that

Lords and Ladies
and who they sire
world wide tax
that they acquire
from the Tower of Babel
to cathedral spires
its all part of the same empire

Barbed wire empire x4

Slaine

Somewhere along the embankment
there's a 17th century battle re-enactment
Christian flags with Judaic crests
and i remember when the locals called this
the snipers nest.
I heard its safe to cross the bridge recently
since we got European funding for decency
green spaces verses burning sites
and the only western country where the children own the night.
its their right of passage
or coming of age
but any fool could tell you
that its all been staged
orchestrated, by parental instructors
with petrol bomb crescendos from a classical conductor.
Cos this unfinished symphony of showing no sympathy
to the other side survives thanks to bigotry,
when hates a tradition,
is it any wonder why the children won't listen?
where community leaders used to carry out bomb plots
pull you from the car, scar the road at the roadblocks,
acronyms on the walls get higher
and my mind is protected by the psyche of razor-wire.
broken glass on the wall top stops young thoughts
from out growing the rot
and red bricks, they got concealed in their rucksacks
police your own streets now thanks to the cut backs.
And how am i meant to feel patriotic
when my country is run by terrorists and alcoholics?
I'll rise like a phoenix from the fire
above all these damp streets
and barbed wire

Ceasefire!