A reflection on brutal home demolitions by the Israeli forces in the Massafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills in Israeli occupied Palestine on Sunday 18 October 2020

A Crime Against Humanity

Come On In 
(Refugees are welcome here)

D                 
Come on in, come on in.
D                                 G
Come on in and sit you down. 

D
Come on in, come on in 
D                                               G
Come on in and welcome to your story.
D
Come on in, come on in
D                                             G
Come on in and welcome to my home.
D                                                                  Bm
Come on in, come on in and welcome to your story.
G                      A                      D
Come on in and share it all with mine.

Em                                           G
And you know you’re more than welcome,
Em                                     G
And we know you’re here to stay.
Em                                      G
There’s no time to live with fear and hatred
Em                                              G
We’ll have to fight together all the way. 
Em                                         G
We’ll have to fight together for acceptance.
Em                                                             A
‘Cos nothing less, nothing less will do, we say.

D
Come on in, come on in
D                                              G
Come on in and join your fellow workers.
D
Come on in, come on in
D                                                  G
Come on in if it’s learning that you seek.
D                                                               Bm
Come on in, come on in we need your contribution.
G                A                         D
Come on in with hope and dignity.

Em                                  G
And you know you have a refuge,
Em                                                     G
And we know you’ve suffered so much pain.
Em                                                 G
There’s no time to live with fear and hatred,
Em                                              G
We’ll have to fight together all the way.
Em                                          G
We’ll have to fight together for acceptance.
Em                                                             A
‘Cos nothing less, nothing less will do, we say

Em                                           G
And you know you’re more than welcome.
Em                                     G
And we know you’re here to stay.
Em                                          G
We’ll have to fight together for acceptance,
Em                                                            A
Come on in, come on in why don’t you stay?


D                                          G            D        
Come on in, come on in – please - stay

Dave Clinch

Come On In (Refugees Are Welcome Here)

In October 2012 I was in Tel Rumeida in H2 area of Al Khalil (Hebron). I was with a group of 'Internationals' at the Abuaisheh family home helping to harvest the olives. The family property is overlooked by settlers. They are allowed only four days to collect the olives, thus we were asked to help out. While we were working we were chatting about art and music. It's where the idea came to adapt Woody Guthrie's famous 'This Land is Your Land'. This is the final draft!

The photo is my all time favourite. I was accompanying girls from the village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills to school!

This Land Belongs To Palestine by Dave Clinch

My Cover of Palestine by Jim Page

I recorded this old Irish air on the uilleann pipes in memory of my old teaching colleague at the then Ilfracombe Arts College, Steve Baldwin.

Táimse I Mo Chodladh - I Am Asleep. Do Not Awaken Me. In memory of Steve Baldwin

'A Heritage of Quality'. Who Made the Shackles?
I was reading about the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates at his front door in Cambridge Massachusetts by a policeman who acknowledged it was the professor's home but still arrested him for 'potential burglary'. 

The officer later apologised and presented Henry Louis Gates with the handcuffs he'd used with his name, James Crowley,  engraved on them. It had a chilling connection to the past. The handcuffs were donated to the National Museum of African American History and Culture

The song refers to a company in Birmingham that makes handcuffs. The proud boast on the Hiatt UK - Handcuffs website is 'Based on a heritage of quality two centuries old'. Their restraints were used during the Transatlantic trade in human bodies and subsequent slavery.

I was prompted to write this song, having also read the work of Marcus Rediker and others on the Transatlantic slave trade.

The song refers to a company in Birmingham that makes handcuffs. The proud boast on the Hiatt UK (Handcuffs) website is 'Based on a heritage of quality two centuries old'. Their restraints were used during the Transatlantic trade in human bodies and subsequent slavery

'A Heritage of Quality' - Who Made the Shackles?

My Cover of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

A beautiful composition by ace American Irish fiddle player Liz Carroll. 
In the photo is my mum and me in the late summer of 2010. She turned 90 in December and is still going strong in Callan, Co Kilkenny.

Lament for the First Generation (Liz Carroll) Low D Whistle

A Song of Love in Gaza 23 November 2012
New Recording-  10 Years On

 And the love of Mohammed and Isra
 Is the love that cannot die.
 It's a song that was written in Gaza
 It's the love that will always survive.

 In the war that came to Gaza
 Back in the New Year of pain,
 Mohammed told Isra he loved her
Beneath that terrible rain.

The city of Gaza was burning
But their messages of love came through. '
How are you?' 'I'm ok. How are you? 
I love you.'
'And I love you, I love you, I love you.'

And the love of Mohammed and Isra 
Is the love that cannot die.
It's a song that was written in Gaza
 It's the love that will always survive.

Now in this month of November
Like Herod's war on the child,
Isra and Mohammed live in a nightmare, 
Their love song is buried inside.

But from darkness it will be nurtured
To return like a bird at sunrise.
Isra will sing their song of love again 
With Mohammed by her side.

And the love of Mohammed and Isra 
Is the love that cannot die.
It's a song that was written in Gaza 
It's the love that will always survive

“I've spoken to my dear friends Mohammed Soliman and Isra Badwan in Gaza tonight and they have allowed me to post their song of love, which I wrote today, on the computer of more great friends, Erella and Dani Dunayevsky, at Kibbutz Shoval, just 25km from Gaza.

I learned about Isra and Mohammed some months ago when a mutual friend in Gaza introduced me on Skype. I was deeply moved by their story. I tried to capture in the song what Mohammed told me about how they were phone messaging each other to see they were both ok when so called 'Operation Cast Lead' happened in 2008/9. 

He told me that in the first minute of 2009 he said to Isra that he loved her. In the first minute of 2012 he proposed to her. They married a few months ago.

The suffered so much then and now again during this latest barbaric attack by the Zionist state of Israel. In one of her texts to me this week Isra said they were in a nightmare. She was so frightened that she lost her voice and said she would never be able to sing again.
Earlier in the week Isra and Mohammed came to a decision that they would not be able to fulfil their dream of having a family, as they could not bring a child into the hell of Gaza.

I tried, along with others who have contacted them to offer hope. I do believe that Isra will find her voice again and that they will have the children they want so much.

Isra said tonight that she hoped we would be able to sing and play music together. What a joy that will be.

I wanted it to be a song of love and hope.

A Song Of Love In Gaza

A real treat. The first time I've heard the Dawn Chorus, approaching 72 years of age!

The Dawn Chorus, Jacob’s Ladder, Whitney on Wye 29 May

A collaboration with my friend and brilliant electronic music composer Martin Eve (4th Eden)

Each Number

Each number is one life
Each number is one loved one
Each number is one parent
Each number is one child
Each number is one sibling
Each number is one grandparent
Each number is one relative
Each number is one friend
Each number is one workmate
Each number is one stone in the pond
Each number is one ripple of grief
Each number is one name
Each number is one life lived
Each number is loss
Each number is one library of memory – gone
Each number is a rebuke to craven politicians

January 2021

each number

A poignant song about the perils of working in construction for Irish navvies. Many were employed on 'the lump', ie no insurance. A small payment might be made by an employer to a worker who was injured or to their family if killed in a workplace accident rather than having to pay for workers' insurance. 

Both my uncles Sonny and Michael worked 'on the buildings'. Thankfully they both emerged unscathed although Sonny had to stop working on the 'new Victoria line' because he developed breathing problems. Workers had to go through an airlock in some parts of the construction which he couldn't handle.

My Cover Of Building Up & Tearing England Down By Dominic Behan

ASFP My Cover of When the Ship Comes In by Bob Dylan

My Cover of The Joy of Living 2

This is an air I composed for my mother, Catherine Clinch,  28 December 1921 to 12 October 2018.

My friends Marianne Holland and Martin Eve also collaborated on this recording.

Catherine's AIr

Catherine's Air - For Catherine Clinch 28 December 1921 to 12 October 2014

The Ballad of Benjamin Lay co-written by historian Marcus Rediker and Dave Clinch was born out of the story of one of slavery’s earliest and most redoubtable opponents, The Fearless Benjamin Lay, The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist and the title of Marcus's biography.

The song crystallises the extraordinary life of Benjamin Lay, shepherd, sailor, guerrilla activist, auto didact, author, vegan and educator. No doubt he was a difficult man, but he cannot be faulted for his implacable opposition to slavery. His actions paved the way for the 19th Century abolitionists in North America and in Britain. Sadly, he was expelled from the Quakers during his lifetime following his abolitionist activities

In 2018 he was returned to the Quaker fold, a poignant coda to the publication of Marcus Rediker's remarkable narrative.

www.versobooks.com/blogs/3496-radi…279-years-later

The Ballad of the Fearless Benjamin Lay by Marcus Rediker and Dave Clinch

This poem is a reflection on the three letter word 'Ago' and what it means to me in describing the past.

thepipercallsproject

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