Thurles Information

Only Our Rivers Run Free.

Lyrics: County Fermanagh Irish musician and songwriter Mickey MacConnell. (Written in 1965)
Vocals: Irish male folk group “Onóir” (Word translated from Irish to English meaning “Honor”).

Only Our Rivers Run Free.

When apples still grow in November,
When blossoms still bloom on each tree,
When leaves are still green in December,
It’s then that our land will be free.
I wander her hills and her valleys,
It’s still through my sorrows I see,
A land that have never known freedom,
Still only her rivers run free.
I drink to the death of her manhood,
For the men who’d rather have died,
Than to live in the cold chains of bondage,
To bring back their rights where denied.
Where are you now when we need you?
What burns where the flame used to be?
Are you gone like the snows of last winter?
Will only our rivers run free.
How sweet is the life for we’re crying,
And how mellow the wine but we’re dry,
How fragrant is the rose but it’s dying,
How gentle the wind but it sighs.
What good is in youth when it’s ageing?
What joy is in eyes that can’t see?
When there’s sorrow in sunshine and in flowers,
And still only our rivers run free.
And still only our rivers run free.

END

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Above quote by South African anti-apartheid activist and politician the late Nelson Mandela, (1918 – 2013).

The Town I Loved So Well.

Lyrics: Derry born Irish musician, songwriter and record producer, Phil Coulter.
Vocals: Dublin born Irish folk singer and guitarist, Paddy Reilly.

The first three verses of the song hereunder reflect on the simple lifestyle Phil Coulter grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal a period known as ‘The Troubles’. He laments how his placid home-town had suddenly become a major military outpost, plagued with violence and death. The final verses of his song include a wish and a message of hope.

The Town I Loved So Well.

In my memory I will always see,
The town that I have loved so well,
Where our schools played ball by the gas-yard wall,
And we laughed through the smoke and the smell.
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane,
Past the jail and down behind the fountain.
Those were happy days in so many, many ways,
In the town I loved so well.

In the early morning the shirt-factory horn,
Called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog,
While the men on the dole played a mother’s role,
Fed the children and then walked the dog.
And when times got rough there was just about enough,
But they saw it through without complaining.
For deep inside was a burning pride,
For the town I loved so well.

There was music there in the Derry air,
Like a language that we could all understand.
I remember the day when I earned my first pay,
When I played in the small pick-up band.
There I spent my youth and to tell you the truth,
I was sad to leave it all behind me.
For I’d learned about life and I’d found me a wife,
In the town I loved so well.

But when I’ve returned, how my eyes were burned,
To see how a town could be brought to its knees,
By the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars,
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze.
Now the army’s installed by that old gas-yard wall,
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher.
With their tanks and their guns, oh, my God, what have they done,
To the town I loved so well.

Now the music’s gone but they carry on,
For their spirit’s been bruised, never broken.
Though they’ll not forget till their hearts are set,
On tomorrow and peace once again.
For what’s done is done and what’s won is won,
And what’s lost is lost and gone forever.
I can only pray for a bright brand new day,
In the town I loved so well.

END