Biography:
Damien Dempsey (born 1975 in Donaghmede, Dublin) is an Irish singer and songwriter who mixes traditional Irish folk with contemporary lyrics to deliver social commentary on the positive and negative aspects arising from Ireland's Celtic Tiger society. He sings in English, and to a lesser extent in Irish.
Dempsey's earliest musical influences were the post-pub singsongs that his parents used to have at their home when he was a toddler. Good, bad or indifferent, everyone had to sing.
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Other songs:
- Your Pretty Smile
- Sing All Our Cares Away
- Apple Of My Eye
- Bad Time Garda
- Bottle Talk
- Bustin Outta Here
- Canadian Geese Live
- Cardboard City
- Chase The Light
- Colony
- Factories
- Ghosts Of Overdoses
- Go To Sea No More
- Hold Me
- Industrial School
- Its All Good
- Jar Song
- Kelly From Killane
- Negative Vibes
- Not On Your Own Tonight
- Party On
- Patience
- Sam Jenkins
- Schooldays Over
- Seize The Day
- Sing All Your Cares Away
- Spraypaint Backalley
- St Patricks Day
- We Need Community
Four years of hard work!This month of May we celebrated four years on the air. We continue working on the dissemination of this wonderful instrument, thank you for participating in our story!
Intro: E
A F#m E
A F#m E
Chorus:
E
I Sing the song of the colony,
How many years and your still not free,
F#m
And your mother cries,Oh and you ask God why.
E
Greed is the knife, and the scars run deep,
How many races with much reason to weep,
F#m
And your children cry, Oh and you ask God why.
Verse:
E
Annie, she came from Dunlaven town,
The TB came, and killed her family all around,
F#m
Population boomed, livin' in two rooms.
E
Katie she came from down Townsend street,
Ten in her bed, and no shoes on their feet,
F#m
1916 came, they played the patriots game.
E
Freddy, he came form the Iveagh flats,
Tenement slums and infested with rats,
F#m
Sleepin on damp straw, tryin not to break the law.
E
Thomas he came from Kilmainah Mayo,
Semi starvation was the only life you know,
F#m
In a two room shack, then jailed in Letterfrack.
A F#m E
A F#m E
Chorus:
E
I sing the song of the colony,
How many years and your still not free,
F#m
And your mother cries, oh and you ask God why.
E
Greed is the knife, and the scars run deep,
How many races with much reason to weep,
F#m
And your children cry, oh and you ask God why.
Verse:
E
I look to the east, I look to the west,
To the north and the south,
And im not too impresed.
F#m
Time after time after crime after crime,
They rape, rob, pilage, enslaved, and murdered,
E
Jesus Christ was their God,
And they done it in his name,
So he could take the blame if its not all a game,
F#m
With Bible in one hand,and a sword in the other,
They came to purify my land, E
And my Gaelic Irish mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers
With our own anchient customs, laws, music, art,
F#m
Way of life and culture
Tribal in structure, we had a civilisation,
When they were still neanderthal nations
E
We suffer with the Native American,
The Indian in Asia,
Aboriginal Australia,
F#m
The African people with their history so deep,
And our children still weep,
And our lives are still cheap,
E
They came from Germany and France, from England and from Spain,
From Belgium and from Portugal,
You all done much the same,
F#m
You took what was not yours,
Went against your own Bible,
You broke your own laws, just to outdo the rival
E
But did you ever apologise,
For the hundreds of millions of lives,
Yous destroyed and terrorised, or have you never realised
F#m
Did you never feel shame for what was done in your countrys name,
And find out whos to blame, and why it was so in-humane.
E
And still they teach you in your school,
About those glorious days of rule,
And how its your destiny to be, superior to me,
F#m
But if you've any kind of mind,
You'll see that all human kind
Are the children of this earth,
E F#m
And your hate for them will chew you up and spit you out!
A F#m E
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
A F#m E
InSide our minds, we all hold the key!
A F#m E Till outro
A F#m E
A F#m E
Chorus:
E
I Sing the song of the colony,
How many years and your still not free,
F#m
And your mother cries,Oh and you ask God why.
E
Greed is the knife, and the scars run deep,
How many races with much reason to weep,
F#m
And your children cry, Oh and you ask God why.
Verse:
E
Annie, she came from Dunlaven town,
The TB came, and killed her family all around,
F#m
Population boomed, livin' in two rooms.
E
Katie she came from down Townsend street,
Ten in her bed, and no shoes on their feet,
F#m
1916 came, they played the patriots game.
E
Freddy, he came form the Iveagh flats,
Tenement slums and infested with rats,
F#m
Sleepin on damp straw, tryin not to break the law.
E
Thomas he came from Kilmainah Mayo,
Semi starvation was the only life you know,
F#m
In a two room shack, then jailed in Letterfrack.
A F#m E
A F#m E
Chorus:
E
I sing the song of the colony,
How many years and your still not free,
F#m
And your mother cries, oh and you ask God why.
E
Greed is the knife, and the scars run deep,
How many races with much reason to weep,
F#m
And your children cry, oh and you ask God why.
Verse:
E
I look to the east, I look to the west,
To the north and the south,
And im not too impresed.
F#m
Time after time after crime after crime,
They rape, rob, pilage, enslaved, and murdered,
E
Jesus Christ was their God,
And they done it in his name,
So he could take the blame if its not all a game,
F#m
With Bible in one hand,and a sword in the other,
They came to purify my land, E
And my Gaelic Irish mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers
With our own anchient customs, laws, music, art,
F#m
Way of life and culture
Tribal in structure, we had a civilisation,
When they were still neanderthal nations
E
We suffer with the Native American,
The Indian in Asia,
Aboriginal Australia,
F#m
The African people with their history so deep,
And our children still weep,
And our lives are still cheap,
E
They came from Germany and France, from England and from Spain,
From Belgium and from Portugal,
You all done much the same,
F#m
You took what was not yours,
Went against your own Bible,
You broke your own laws, just to outdo the rival
E
But did you ever apologise,
For the hundreds of millions of lives,
Yous destroyed and terrorised, or have you never realised
F#m
Did you never feel shame for what was done in your countrys name,
And find out whos to blame, and why it was so in-humane.
E
And still they teach you in your school,
About those glorious days of rule,
And how its your destiny to be, superior to me,
F#m
But if you've any kind of mind,
You'll see that all human kind
Are the children of this earth,
E F#m
And your hate for them will chew you up and spit you out!
A F#m E
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
You'll never kill our will to be free, to be free,
A F#m E
InSide our minds, we all hold the key!
A F#m E Till outro
Damso
Dan + Shay
Dan And Drum
Dan And Phil
Dan Andersen