Christy Moore

"Nancy Spain"

"Nancy Spain"


Of all the stars that ever shone
Not one does twinkle like your pale blue eyes
Like golden corn at harvest time your hair
Sailing in my boat the wind
Gently blows and fills my sail
Your sweet-scented breath is everywhere
Daylight peeping through the curtain
Of the passing night time is your smile
And the sun in the sky is like your laugh
Come back to me my Nancy
Linger for just a little while
Since you left these shores I've known no peace nor joy
No matter where I wander I'm still haunted by your name
The portrait of your beauty stays the same
Standing by the ocean wondering where you've gone
If you'll return again
Where is the ring I gave to Nancy Spain
On the day in Spring when snows start to melt
And streams to flow
With the birds I'll sing this song
Then in the while I'll wander
Down by bluebell stream where wild flowers grow
And I'll hope that lovely Nancy will return
No matter where I wander I'm still haunted by your name
The portrait of your beauty stays the same
Standing by the ocean wondering where you've gone
If you'll return again
Where is the ring I gave to Nancy Spain

"Natives"

"Natives"


For all of our languages we can't communicate
For all of our native tongues we're all natives here
Sons of their fathers' dream the same dream
The sound of forbidden words becomes a scream
Voices in anger, victims of history
Plundered and set aside, grow fat on swallowed pride

With promises of paradise and gifts of beads and knives
Missionaries and pioneers are soldiers in disguise
Saviours and Conquerers, they make us wait
Like fishers of men they wave their truth like bait
But with the touch of a stranger's hand innocence turns to shame
The spirit that dwelt within now sleeps out in the rain

For all of our languages we can't communicate
For all of our native tongues, we're all natives here
The scars of the past are slow to disappear
The cries of the dead are always in our ears
And only the very safe can talk about wrong and right
Of those who are forced to choose, some will choose to fight

"North And South Of The River"

"North And South Of The River"


I want to reach out over the lough
And feel your hand across the water
Walk with you along an unapproved road
Not looking over my shoulder
I want to see
I want to hear
To understand your fears
But we're north and south of the river

I've been doing it wrong
All of my life
This holy town has turned me over
A young man running from what he didn't understand
As the wind from the lough just blew colder and colder

There was a badness that had its way
But love was not lost
It just got mislaid
North and south of the river

Can we stop playing these old tattoos?
Darling I don't have the answer
I want to meet you where you are
I don't need you to surrender
There is no feeling so alone
As when the one you're hurting is your own
North and south of the river

Some high ground is not worth taking
Some connections are not worth making
There's an old church bell no longer ringing
And some old songs not worth singing

North and south of the river
North and south of the river

"On The Bridge"

"On The Bridge"


There's thirty people on the bridge and they're standing in the rain
They caught my eye as I passed them by, they tried to explain
Why they were standing there, I did not want to hear
When trouble gets too close to home, my anger turns to fear

With my eyes turned to the ground I moved along
I covered up my ears and I held my tongue
The rain poured down relentlessly upon the picket line
And the empty words fell from my lips, "Your troubles are not mine"

Though the rain it made the colours run the message it was plain
Women are being strip searched in Armagh jail

We kneel in adoration before effigies of stone
Our eyes turned to heaven blind to what's going on
Six women hold a naked woman pinned down on the floor
Without trial or jury, like a prisoner of war

Though the rain it made the colours run the message it was plain
Women are being strip searched in Armagh and Brixton Jail

"On The Mainland"

"On The Mainland"


I was over on the Mainland
Doing me act in some old civic hall
It was the night before we stormed the hackney empire
My adrenaline got pumpin' when the crowd demanded more
I couldn't sleep a wink
So I turned on to the BBC World Service
Comin' at me from New Delhi
Or some other long lost Colonial shore
When a lovely English man came on the wireless
With a gorgeous, sweet dulcet Portland placed clipped tone
He announced that the winner
Of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature
Was a British poet
"Séamus Heaney from Londonderry", sez he
As cool as cool could be
So I roared out for tea and toasted muffins
And a pair of hard-boiled eggs to calm my nerves
You never claimed George Best nor Alex Higgins
Nor you never claimed Bellaghy's other boys
But that's the way things are upon the Mainland
Where the Quarehawks are still sucking
The wee small birds' eggs dry
I was over on the mainland
Doing me act in some old civic hall

"One Last Cold Kiss"

"One Last Cold Kiss"


Two island swans mated for life
And his faithful heart would not consider any other wife
For three years peaceful joy midst the rushes of the pond
Proud and gentle was the loving of the last two island swans
Their love was like a circle, no beginning and no end
With his lady by his side a treasure and best friend
And the pond was all so peaceful with the rising of the sun
Young and free like the island breeze their life was just begun
'Til a dread day in November when the searing cold did start
Stalked the hunter with his bow, he put an arrow through her heart
Husband come to my side let your feathers warm my pain
For I feel I will not spend another day with you again
And the cold winds blow
He was brave but he's laid low
By her body in the isle of mist
I saw him give her one last cold kiss
One last cold kiss
Of swans the people talk of only one in this days tide
They brought him twenty ladies he would take no other bride
They say he will not move from the place where she did fall
Once so proud he's beaten now, he will not speak at all
And the cold winds blow
He was brave but he's laid low
By her body in the isle of mist
I saw him give her one last cold kiss
One last cold kiss

"Only Our Rivers Run Free"

"Only Our Rivers Run Free"


When apples still grow in September when blossoms still bloom on each tree
When leaves are still green in December it's then that our land will be free
I wander her hills and her valleys and still through my sorrow I see
A land that has never known freedom, only her rivers run free
I drink to the death of her manhood, those men who would rather have died
Than to live in the cold chains of bondage to bring back their rights were denied
Where are you now when we need you, what burns where the flame used to be?
Are you gone like the snows of last winter will only our rivers run free
How sweet is life but we're crying how mellow the wine that were dry
How fragrant the rose but its dying how gentle the wind but it sighs
What good is youth when its ageing what joy is in eyes that can see?
There is sorrow in sunshine and flowers and only our rivers run free

"Ordinary Man"

"Ordinary Man"


I'm an ordinary man, nothing special, nothing grand
I've had to work for everything I own
I never asked for a lot, I was happy with what I got
Enough to keep my family and my home

Now they say that times are hard and they've handed me my cards
They say there's not the work to go around
And when the whistle blows, the gates will finally close
Tonight they're going to shut this factory down
Then they'll tear it down

I never missed a day nor went on strike for better pay
For twenty years I served them best I could
Now with a handshake and a cheque it seems so easy to forget
Loyalty through the bad times and through good
The owner says he's sad to see that things have got so bad
But the captains of industry won't let him lose
He still drives a car and smokes his cigar
And still he takes his family on a cruise, he'll never lose

Well it seems to me such a cruel irony
He's richer now then he ever was before
Now my cheque is spent and I can't afford the rent
There's one law for the rich, one for the poor
Every day I've tried to salvage some of my pride
To find some work so's I might pay my way
Oh but everywhere I go, the answer's always no
There's no work for anyone here today, no work today

And so condemned I stand just an ordinary man
Like thousands beside me in the queue
I watch my darling wife trying to make the best of life
And God knows what the kids are going to do
Now that we are faced with this human waste
A generation cast aside
And as long as I live, I never will forgive
You've stripped me of my dignity and pride, you've stripped me bare
You've stripped me bare, you've stripped me bare

"Paddy On The Road"

"Paddy On The Road"


I've won a heroes name with McAlpine and Costain
With Fitzpatrick, Murphy, Ashe and Wimpey's gang
I've been often on the road on my way to draw the dole
When there's nothing left to do for Sir John Laing
I used to think that God made the mixer pick and hod
So that Paddy might know hell above the ground
I've had gangers big and tough tell me tear it all out rough
When you're building up and tearing England down

In a tunnel underground a young Limerick man was found
He was built into the new Victoria Line
When the pouring gang had past sticking through the concrete cast
Was the face of little Charlie Joe Devine
And the ganger man McGurk big Paddy ate the work
When the gas main burst and he flew off the ground
Oh they swear he said "Don't slack, I'll not be here until I'm back"
Keep on building up and tearing England down

I remember Carrier Jack with his hod upon his back
How he swore he'd one day set the world on fire
But his face they've never seen since his shovel it cut clean
Through the middle of a big high tension wire
I saw auld Bald McGann from the big flyover fall
Into a concrete mixer spinning round
Although his life was spent he got a fine head of cement
As he was building up and tearing England down

I was on the hydro dam the day that Pat McCann
Got the better of his stammer in a week
He fell from the shuttering jam and that poor auld stuttering man
He was never ever more inclined to speak
No more like Robin Hood will he roam through Cricklewood
Or dance around the pubs of Camden Town
But let no man complain Paddy does not die in vain
When he's building up and tearing England down

So come all you navvies bold who think that English gold
Is just waiting to be taken from each sod
Or that the likes of you and me could ever get an OBE
Or an knighthood for good service to the hod
They've the concrete master race to keep you in your place
The ganger man to kick you to the ground
If you ever try to take part of what the bosses make
When they're building up and tearing England down