My last songs?

This probably WILL be my second to last lyrics post. I have two songs that I'm reluctant to post for various reasons. But here are three new ones. They're all "Those Lyrics," see this for more of an explanation.

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Republican Flame” based on “The Flame that Never Dies” by No Remorse, original lyrics are here.

1. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
2. The south Armagh IRA made life very dificult for the British security forces, more so than the IRA in other areas.
3. In recent years, the 99% nationalist part of Derry on the west bank of the river foyle has been renamed the “West Bank” in solidarity with the Palestinians.
4. In nationalist areas curbstones are often painted green and orange as 2/3 of the colors of the Irish flag.
5. A lot of people exaggerate how religious the motivation for republicans and nationalists is- it’s close to zero.
**6. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original.
7. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
8. This song is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
9. Awesome as it was, the IRA campaign in S. Armagh probably wasn't known world-wide (I've done one post and two poems indicating it wasn't) but it was possibly more well-known than most of the other IRA units.
10. No remorse are British and did support the unionist/loyalist cause in N. Ireland, therefore this poem is twisting the original.
11. In the west belfast verse, imminent victories is fairly unreaslistic, but an optimistic statement is okay.
12. Republicans do a lot of anti-racism work (see this).
13. Part of this is about the IRA, but much of it could be associated with un-armed republicans and some of it with nationalists in general.
UPDATE 2/10/20 14. in the second to last line of the poem I changed "people" to "women and men."

In every Irish heart, there burns immortal flames,
A pride that never wavers, a valor yet untamed,
The occupiers of the North won't cease to wonder why,
They can never beat - THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

In the south Armagh countryside, There's something in the air,
A pride filled sense, of resistance, of battle un-compared,
A drive for freedom, a rural offensive known world-wide,
And none can ever dampen - THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

On the streets of the West bank, the feeling's all around,
The spirit of resistance, against the British crown
The people look forward to when the British say good-bye
The Brits can try, but they can't stop- THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

On the streets of west Belfast, The flag is always seen,
A sign of imminent victories, curbs painted orange and green
To be united with the South, many heroes died,
No enemy could ever smash - THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

Across the North, a revolutionary spirit that does not come from Rome
There's justice in Irish unity, ensuring safer homes,
Diversity and culture, The Irish people's pride,
Together we will stand and fuel - THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

They can kill the Irish people, and try to keep us down,
They can jail us with non-jury courts, repression all around,
But as Irish women and men, we will not bend, our tri-colors we'll fly,
Again they've tried and failed to kill - THE FLAME THAT NEVER DIES

******

“Four Provinces” based on “Mother Europe” by Skrewdriver. Original lyrics are here.

1. This song about that part of the nationalist community who, the early 1970s, supported both the civil rights movement, and the use of armed struggle.
2. There are four ancient provinces of Ireland.
3. The Foyle is a river which divides Derry. In recent years (not, to be honest, in the early 1970s) nationalists have referred to the 99% Nationalist part of Derry as the West Bank in solidarity with the Palestinians. The West Bank is where the Bloody Sunday march took place, and 14 civil rights marchers were killed by the British Army.
4. To a very large degree, until the late 1960s, mass struggle was not part of the struggles of the nationalist community and republicans largely ignored the option of mass struggle and felt that the IRA would deliver freedom. The adoption of mass struggle in the late sixties, with a civil rights theme, was largely inspired by the American Civil Rights Movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr.
**5. 62% of this version is me, 38% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem four stars out of five.
7. UPDATE 12/12/10 In the last verse I replaced solely with mostly.
8. Skrewdriver was supportive of the Unionist and British causes in N. Ireland.
9. UPDATE 2/2/4/20 I added "most of" to the third line of the first verse.
10. UPDDATE 2/25/20 I screwed up a tiny bit with this, and I guess I need to say that it refers to the brief period immediately after Bloody Sunday, when A) there bad been a surge in support for the Provisonal IRA and B) there was a flurry of marches before the Civil Rights Movement practically died.

Many of our people, Ireland’s daughters and sons
faced so many tragedies at the barrel of British guns
We are most of the Nationalist working-class, marching side by side
As long as Ireland is divided, we’ll be there with flags held up high

Chorus:
Four Provinces, stand for unity
and standing with the Nationalist community

So many martyrs, whose blood has drenched the soil.
Including those who marched on the West Bank of the Foyle
So many warriors, whose bones are laid to rest
fighting for Irish unity, has been our noble quest

Chorus

For far too long we relied mostly on the IRA
but then we learned how to march, inspired by MLK
For freedom and justice are within our reach
we must continue the struggle for the victory that we seek

*****

“Carnival of Reaction” based on “White Kids Gonna Fight” by Bully Boys, original lyrics are here.

1. The lyrics only partly reflects the title. It would be better if I had been able to say something about the dominance of religious right politics in both parts of Ireland. Anyway, James Connolly, Ireland’s greatest socialist and greatest republican said, in 1914, that dividing Ireland would result in a “carnival of reaction.”
2. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
3. Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. At a point early in the process of partitioning Ireland, many local government units in what became N. Ireland pledged their allegiance to the Dail (Parliament) in Dublin. The new government in Belfast had those bodies abolished and replaced with appointed (unionist) commissions until N. Ireland was completely established.
5. I’m not sure about how many IRA members were killed during the period in the North that I’m referring to. But some of them were killed. (Volunteers are republican paramilitaries).
6. Valhalla is part of Norse mythology, it's a place where warriors go after they die, although there seems to be some debate about exactly who gets in- only people who die in combat? Anyway, the fascists love it and have sort of taken over the concept, but a friend told me that he likes the idea of the left claiming it and specifically said that if such a place exists, Che and others like him are probably there. (Do I believe in Valhalla? You could say I’m sort of an agnostic on that question and am sort of solidly a Christian. The way I see it, this is pretty flexible, don't take it too seriously, and one way to think about it is that if you believe in Heaven and would rather these people went there instead of Valhalla, maybe they can do both, spend some time in Valhalla and some time in Heaven; but my friend and I do like the idea of reclaiming it from the fash)
8. The civil war in the South  took place in the middle of the period that saw the establishment of N. Ireland.
9. My favorite song, “Your daughters and your sons” is, according to one source, about how the dream of freedom was passed from generation to generation between the founding of N. Ireland and the late sixties. The song refers to sowing "the seeds of freedom" in their daughters and their sons.
10. Michael Collins had a British figure partly in charge of security for the North killed in response to what Catholics in the North were going through.
11. The Orange card is used to divide workers and mobilize support for unionism by fanning the flames of sectarianism.
12. Republicans and nationalists were MUCH less likely to engage in anti-Protestant violence than Unionists were to engage in anti-Catholic violence (well, that's certainly true in the last seven decades- in the early 1920s, they might have been sort of close to being just as bad as the Unionists, I haven't read about that period for a while now (UPDATE 12/14/11 It's been a few months now, but I did read that stuff, and I would say that, yes they were a bit closer to being as bad as the Unionists during that period (early 1920s), but there was still a HUGE gap between the frequency of anti-Catholic incidents and the frequency of anti-Protestant incidents)). (UPDATE 8/5/24 I’m basing my thoughts about the early 1920s on Farrell’s “The Orange State” and I am talking about attacks on civilians)
13. This version isn’t as “twisted” (in conflict with what the authors of the original lyrics believe) as I had hoped- that’s because the original is American (see this). I couldn’t think of anything anti-bigot (other than opposing sectarianism) or anti-fascist etc. to twist it. But it’s sort of twisted based on the following:
A: The title is from a quote by James Connolly, a socialist.
B: The Bully Boys are officially connected to the Hammerskins (a Nazi skinhead group), who have chapters world-wide and at one point that included unionists in N. Ireland, so they’re probably not favorable to republicanism.
**14. 77% of this version is me, 23% is the original.
15. I give this song/poem five out of five stars.
16. The blame would be with the British who had encouraged sectarianism to oppress the Irish and divide the poor (workers).
17. It's kind of about the IRA and unarmed republicans but much of it could be embraced by nationalists, especially since I think there was more support for the IRA during that period around 1920 than was the case in the more recent Troubles.
18. UPDATE 2/24/20 I changed "knocked" to "keep" in the second to last line. And I added "some day" to the last line.

This island used to be 32-counties as one
Now divided by the unionists and London
The Dail has the allegiance of our counties and towns
Now Belfast is shutting them down
In the South the British were beat
In Belfast loyalists are burning down Catholic streets
A Volunteer got shot at Clonard and Falls
Now he's feasting in Valhalla's Hall

chorus:
Burned out streets and smashed dreams
Our country is pulling itself apart at the seams
But we won't give up without a fight
We'll keep the republican flame burning bright

The seeds of freedom are now all we've got
And of course Collins had Wilson shot
Sectarian bunting in the shipyards
the unionists are playing the orange card
I think I know just who's to blame
but we won't play their sectarian game
the Brits will not keep us down
Some day we're going to fight this town by town


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).