Language   

Famine

Sinéad O’Connor
Language: English


Sinéad O’Connor

Related Songs

This Is a Rebel Song
(Sinéad O’Connor)
Drink Before The War
(Sinéad O’Connor)
Take Off Your Shoes
(Sinéad O’Connor)


Album: Universal Mother - 1994

Famine

Con l'espressione "The Great Famine" o "The Great Hunger" (in gaelico "An Gorta Mór" o "An Drochshaol", letteralmente "The Bad life") si intende la grande carestia che colpì l'Irlanda tra il 1845 e il 1852. Se la carestia fu causata da un parassita infestante che distrusse i raccolti di patata, i suoi effetti furono moltiplicati dalla soggezione politica e commerciale dell'Irlanda alla Corona inglese, tant'è che qualche storico (p.e. Francis A. Boyle) si spinge a dire che in quel periodo l'Inghilterra realizzò di fatto un genocidio per fame della popolazione irlandese.
en.wikipedia

Fatto sta che fu proprio "La Grande Fame" a dare un forte impulso alla ribellione irlandese contro la dominazione britannica (le organizzazioni repubblicane come i Young Irelanders e l'Irish Republican Brotherhood nacquero proprio durante o subito dopo la carestia)

Durante la "Great Famine", una considerevole parte della popolazione morì, un'altra grandissima fetta lasciò il paese dando vita a una delle più ingenti emigrazioni della storia: milioni di profughi si imbarcarono verso l'America e la Gran Bretagna, spesso sulle cosiddette Coffin ships (Bare galleggianti), imbarcazioni non adatte a salpare per l'Oceano Atlantico e che causarono un numero elevatissimo di morti. Tra morti ed emigranti la Grande Carestia portò la popolazione irlandese da circa 8 milioni di persone a circa 4,4 nel 1911.
it.wikipedia
OK, 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 on 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
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 massive self-destruction
alcoholism, drug adiction
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
An American army regulation Says you mustn't kill more than 10% 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 was not starvation
but it's use in the controlling of our education
Schools 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
(Excuse me)
All the lonely people
(I'm sorry, excuse me)
Where do they all come from
(that I can tell you in one word)
All the lonely people
where do they all belong
So let's take a look shall 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 sufferin 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 basned 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 come from

Contributed by Alessandro - 2008/3/26 - 10:05




Main Page

Please report any error in lyrics or commentaries to antiwarsongs@gmail.com

Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.




hosted by inventati.org