SweetCarnloughBay

Chief O'Neil's Favourite/Corn Hornpipe

Another wonky analog-to-digital track from the vaults.
Despite the notion of the Irish lackadaisical attitude towards the concept of time, I "composed" this piece in rather a rush in my home in Andytown, Belfast, during a hot, hectic, (Anti-Internment) August evening many moons ago.

Belfast Shuffle

RADICAL REBEL GIRL
Words & Music by Ray Collins

don't you know it was love at first sight
when he saw her standing there with her little armalite
christian dior combat jacket and her velvet black beret
her foster grant sunglasses she just stole his heart away

chorus:
where would he be the sensitive rebel boy
if it wasn't for the support of his strong willed pride and joy
where would he be when his mind's all in a whirl
if it wasn't for the love of his radical rebel girl

as she marches up the falls road in her long golden braids
she's the finest looking colleen in the easter parade
as she leads the colour party with the flags flying high
there's no one else can match her she's the apple of his eye

no use looking in the kitchen you'd be wasting your time
she's out there organizing on the picket line
a source of inspiration and a sister through and through
she don't want second best only first class will do


Copyright 1992  Collins/Colin Glen Music/ASCAP

http://www.raycollinsmusic.com



Radical Rebel Girl

SILENCE OF THE SOUND
Words & Music by Ray Collins

as I strolled the sands at red bay
the sun sank in the sound
memories of a fonder day echoed all around
a soft sandy  cove
where we came to know
each other deep inside
our passions overflowed
swirled in the moonlit tide

now around me curls the northern winds
here amongst the sands
i long to hear you sing
but I can't seem to take in anything
in my mind all I find
is the silence of the sound
the silence
the silence of the sound

i live in the past to ease the pain
the hurt remains my one true friend
your death has sealed the lover's cell
your passing leaves me here to dwell
in tortuous never ending dreams
rewriting all our wildest schemes


Copyright  1992 Collins/Colin Glen Music/ASCAP


http://www.raycollinsmusic.com


Silence of the Sound

RESTIN' MY BONES
Words & Music by Ray Collins

many miles i've travelled across many seas i've roamed
one of these days i might even find myself a home
shamey's gone and left me best dog i ever had
my sleeping bag it caught fire y'know things got really bad

Chorus:

but it's alright i ain't drunk/high/wired don't you worry 
i'm just lying here i'm in no hurry
just lyin' here in the dust all on my own
well y'know i'm just restin' my bones

buses trains and backroads chart the rover's way
to pit stops and dives any where there's a place to play
rows as big as fights spillin' over into brawls
Broken strings and busted amps left in dingy empty halls

you sure get a wider audience on new york city streets
those frantic metro rhythms and that crazy urban beat
my kinda city open duck 'til dawn
anything goes if you just care to try it on
oh lovely..

people rush past me toss me a dime
down in the subway buskin' that's how i spend my time
millions of faces day after day
all of us dreamin' of doing it our way

Copyright 1992 Collins/Colin Glen Music/ASCAP

http://www.raycollinsmusic.com


Restin' My Bones

Gone

A song in tribute and memory of Sean Downes who was murdered by the RUC in Belfast, Ireland, on August 12th 1984. Also in memory of all those who have been killed by Plastic Bullets.

The Ballad of Sean Downes

Gerald's mother Eileen, in her own words.

``He's not coming home,'' says Nellie McAuley. ``They were the words that confirmed my worst fears.'' A large black and white pen portrait of her son hangs in the living room of Nellie's terrace street home. ``It was drawn by one of the prisoners in Long Kesh,'' says Nellie, ``and given to Gerald's uncle. It's a good likeness.''

Gerald McAuley was 15 years old when he was shot dead while defending the Clonard district from loyalist attack. The likeness shows all the optimism and confidence of youth. The kind of face which should have been more at home on a GAA pitch challenging his peers, than facing a pitched battle against a rampaging Orange mob.

At 7am on Friday 15 August, Nellie was in Belfast city centre where she was working as a cleaner in one of the big stores. ``I was working when I heard the news that a wee boy, Patrick Rooney, had been shot dead by the RUC in Divis Flats the night before,'' says Nellie.

There were no buses for the return journey home. ``A young woman was standing at the bus stop in the town,'' says Nellie. She was a Protestant, the girl told Nellie, and was too afraid to walk home through West Belfast. ``I told her she'd be alright with me, and we linked arms and walked home together.''

Years later, the two women met again. ``She remembered me and also knew that my son had been shot dead just hours after we first met,'' says Nellie. She thanked Nellie for her kindness and said she had been sorry to hear Gerald had been killed. ``It was ironic,'' she said. ``No, it was tragic,'' said Nellie.

``I'd been out queuing for bread,'' says Nellie, ``and when I returned home there was a commotion at the house. Someone said Gerald had been shot. Another neighbour said he'd only been hit with a stone.'' With an increasing sense of foreboding, Nellie began a desperate search for her son.

``I heard some of the wounded had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital. I pleaded with a nurse to let me search the wards.'' A neighbour waiting in Casualty for his injuries to be treated confirmed that Gerald had been shot but he wasn't at the Royal.

Back at home, news reporters had visited the McAuley's, asking for a photograph of Gerald. ``He must be dead,'' Nellie told her daughter Frances. Finbar McKenna's father took Nellie to the City Hospital. ``A sister at the hospital said Gerald wasn't there but there was a 19-year-old youth in the morgue at Musgrove Barracks,'' says Nellie. ``I knew it was Gerald; he was only 15 but he was big for his age.''

Returning home, the reaction of people manning a barricade at Kennedy Way added to Nellie McAuley's fears. ``They moved so quickly and quietly out of our way.'' From across a road a priest called to Nellie. ``Are you looking for your son?'' said the priest, ``He's not coming home, go home now, he died for his faith.'' Later that night Gerald's father travelled to Musgrove to identify his son's body.

``I didn't know Gerald was a member of the Fianna,'' says Nellie. ``He was often away from home cycling and camping but I never thought anything of it. I was told later that he had been helping evacuate families, loading their furniture onto the back of a lorry.''

The McAuley family's ordeal did not end there. Three weeks later a British army captain knocked on their front door. ``He asked for my husband and told him he was wanted down the barracks to identity his son,'' says Nellie. ``My husband told him Gerald was dead and buried but he insisted. `Is it Jim?' he asked. At the barracks the RUC roared with laughter. It was their idea of a joke, a sort of initiation stunt for the British army officer.''

Ballad of Gerald McAuley

GEORGE HARRISON 1915 -- 2004

Born in Shammer, Kilkelly, County Mayo, in the west of Ireland, George emigrated to the United States. He, Tom Falvey, Michael Flannery, Pat Mullin, and Danny Gormley comprised the North American branch of an arms-running network that is estimated to have provided more than 2,500 weapons and perhaps a million rounds of ammunition to the IRA.

In 1981, the gun-runners were arrested in an FBI sting code-named "Operation Bushmill". All five were acquitted in a  Federal criminal trial held in  Brooklyn,New York, which lasted from December 1980 to June 1981. 
Their acquittal was widely attributed to the unconventional efforts of Harrison's personal attorney, Frank Durkan; the men admitted to their activities, but claimed that they believed the operations had Central Intelligence Agency sanction.

Although he had spent much of the previous decade involved in this operation, his acquittal marked the end of his active career as an IRA gun-runner. In the latter part of his life, he would devote his time to various causes, including support for the African National Congress, the Sandinista movement, and the Independista (Puerto Rican nationalist) campaign against Puerto Rico's status as an American Commonwealth.
George continued to support the Republican Movement in 1986 when the Provisional Republican Movement dropped the traditional Republican stance of not taking their seats in the Republic of Ireland's government. He was a founder and activist of the Republican support group Cumann na Saoirse/Irish Freedom Committee in the USA. He was a Patron of Republican Sinn Féin until he died.
He also took a number of controversial stances within the broader Irish-American community within New York City, including outspoken support for former Mayor David Dinkins and open defiance of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
He died in 2004 from natural causes at his home in Brooklyn, New York.

A Rebel Son

         Chorus

Stand Down!    Stand Down!!
Stand Down!!!   Stand Down!!!!

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fail
Banks get bailed and the workers get nailed
Fianna Fáil Fianna Fail
Banks get bailed and the people get nailed

'Soldiers of Destiny' destitute in infamy
Gang Green gombeen seoinins
Liars cheats thieves obscene
Wrap the Green Flag 'round 'em bhoys
Pull it tight crush their toys
So much for a  'Nation Once Again'
You've sold us out in your Capitalist Game

Chorus

Orange White 'n' Green no more
Euro bailiffs are at the door
"Take it Down form the Mast"
Turn yourselves in your time is past
Beggin' Bowl and Cap in Hand
To the IMF and our Ancient Foe
Piling poverty on all our woes

Chorus

You know it's not just Fianna Fail
But all those other amadans in the Dail
Wasteful Wankers Bloated Bankers
Greedy Global Glutons all
Eurocrat exploiters control our Nation
Time to fight back against their exploitation
Time for a new Citizen Army
Time for a new Citizen Army.
Come Workers Rise Again!!


www.raycollinsmusic.com





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