THE WOLFE TONES
JOE McDONNELL
This song is about Joe McDonnell, an Irish Republican Volunteer who died in prison
while on hunger strike in 1981, he and his comrades were protesting against
the conditions and the fact that the British were trying to force them to wear
prison uniform when they were POW s. The British government wrongly convicted
them of being terrorists when the terrorists were and still are the British
government who have beign terrorising the Irish since 1167.
[Verse 1]
O me name is Joe McDonnell, from Belfast town I came
That city I will never see again
For in the town of Belfast I spent many happy days
I love that town in oh so many ways
For it s there I spent my childhood and found for me a wife
I then set out to make for her a life
But all my young ambitions met with bitterness and hate
I soon found myself inside a prison gate
[Chorus]
And you dare call me a terrorist while you look down your gun
When I think of all the deeds that you have done
You had plundered many nations divided many lands
You had terrorised their peoples you ruled with an iron hand
And you brought this reign of terror to my land