Testo di Dick Gaughan, musica di Tommy Sands.
Dall'album "Singing of the Times" del 1985.

Scritta da Brian Warfield.
"In 1981, Irish republican volunteers in a British jail on Irish soil undertook a fast to the death to retain their status as political prisoners. The British government demanded they be classified as criminals. Ten men died on the doorstep of the British government in one of the most turbulent periods in the tragic history of Anglo-Irish relations. This ballad tells the tragic story of one of these great men, Joe McDonnell."
(dal sito dei Wolfe Tones)

This song was written by the Wolfe Tones paying tribute,to a brave young Irish soldier who died in the H-blocks of Long Kesh, aged just 30, after 61 days on hungerstrike.He died in agony defying the British govenment's attempts to criminalise Irish republican prisoners.He died so that others coming after him would be recognised as political prisoners.

Joe McDonnell (attivista) - Wikipedia