Sinéad O’Connor - Irish Ways and Irish Laws

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