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famine reynolds extended mix - sinead o'connor lyrics

(o’connor, clayton, simenon, reynolds)

[the extended version of “famine”, released in 1995, from the cd-single “famine”]

there is more in us than we know about. the famine, which happened 150 years ago.
itæš¯ three lifetimes at most. things that happen than were handed on from father
to son, from mother to daughter, down to this day. they are within us now, and we
donæš° deal with them. and it seems to me, this is whatæš¯ interesting about a lot
of irish music now, that it is the carrier for this kind of feeling, and for this
kind of emotion, that we have no other expression for it because politically we
deny it, intellectually we deny it. our literature ……. doesnæš° deal with this,
our sentiment doesnæš° deal with this. but music, itæš¯ in the music, it seems to me.
the culture can actually carry those things in al kinds of visible ways, in gesture,
in movement, in language, in humour and in music.

okay, i want to talk about ireland
specifically i want to talk about the “famine”
about the fact that there never really was one
there was no “famine”
see irish people were only allowed to eat potatoes
all of the other food, meat, fish, vegetables,
were shipped out of the country under armed guard
to england while the irish people starved
and then in the middle of all this
they gave us money not to teach our children irish
and so we lost our history
and this is what i think is still hurting me

you see we’re like a child that’s been battered
has to drive itself out of it’s head because it’s frightened
still feels all the painful feelings
but they lose contact with the memory
and this leads to m-ssive self-destruction
alcoholism, drug addiction
all desperate attempts at running
and in it’s worst form
becomes actual killing
and if there ever is gonna be healing
there has to be remembering
and then grieving
so that there then can be forgiving
there has to be knowledge and understanding

all the lonely people
where do they all come from
all the lonely people
where do they all belong

an american army regulation
says you mustn’t kill more than ten percent of a nation
‘cos to do so causes permanent “psychological damage”
it’s not permanent but they didn’t know that
anyway during the supposed “famine”
we lost a lot more than 10% of our nation
through deaths on land or on ships of emigration
but what finally broke us is not starvation
no it’s use in the controlling of our education
school go on about “black 47”
on and on about “the terrible famine”
but what they don’t say is in truth
there really never was one

all the lonely people
where do they all come from
all the lonely people
where do they all belong

so let’s take a look can we
the highest statistics of child abuse in the eec
and we say we’re a christian country
but we’ve lost contact with our history
see we used to worship god as a mother
we’re suffering from post traumatic stress disorder
look at all our old men in the pubs
look at all our young people on drugs
we used to worship god as a mother
now look at what we’re doing to each other
we’ve even made killers of ourselves
the most child-like trusting people in the universe
and this is what’s wrong with us
our history books the parent figures lied to us
i see the irish
as a race like a child
that got itself smashed in the face
and if there ever is gonna be healing
there has to be remembering
and then grieving
so that there then can be forgiving
there has to be knowledge and understanding

all the lonely people
where do they all come from
all the lonely people
where do they all belong
all the lonely people
where do they all come from
(that i can tell you in one word)
all the lonely people
where do they all belong

and if there ever is gonna be healing
there has to be remembering
and then grieving
so that there then can be forgiving
there has to be knowledge and understanding

we stand on the brink of a great achievement
in this ireland there is no solution
to be found to our disagreements
by shooting each other

because of our tradition everyone here knows who he is
and what god expects him to do

forgiveness, forgiveness
knowledge
yes
and understanding

forgiveness
equate, be driven
frogiveness
knowledge
yes
and understanding

(repeat the above several times)

- sinead oconnor lyrics

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