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There Were Roses
by Tommy Sands

My song for you this evening, it’s not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of this troubled northern land,
But lately I’ve been thinking and it just won’t leave my mind
I’ll tell you of two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

Allan Bell from Banagh, he lived just across the fields,
A great man for the music and the dancing and the reels.
O’Malley came from South Armagh to court young Alice fair,
And we’d often meet on the Ryan Road and the laughter filled the air.

Chorus:
There were roses, roses
There were roses
And the tears of the people
Ran together

Though Allan, he was Protestant, and Sean was Catholic born,
It never made a difference for the friends, it was strong.
And sometimes in the evening when we heard the sound of drums
We said, “War won’t divide us.  We always will be one.'’

For the ground our fathers plowed in, the soil, it is the same,
And the places where we say our prayers go by different names.
We talked about the friends who died, and we hoped there’d be no more.
It’s little then we realized the tragedy in store.

 Chorus

It was on a Sunday morning when the awful news came round.
Another killing has been done just outside Newry Town.
We knew that Allan danced up there, we knew he liked the band.
When we heard that he was dead we just could not understand.

We gathered at the graveside on that cold and rainy day,
And the minister he closed his eyes and for no revenge he prayed.
And those of us who knew him, from along the Ryan Road,
We bowed our heads and said a prayer for the resting of his soul.

 Chorus

Now fear, it filled the countryside.  There was fear in every home
And late that night, a car of death came prowling round the lonely Ryan Road.
A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score.
`Oh, Christ!  It’s young O’Malley that they’ve taken from the door.

“Allan was my friend,'’ he cried.  He begged them with his fear,
But centuries of hatred have ears that cannot hear.
An eye for an eye, was all that filled their minds
And another eye for another eye, till everyone is blind.

 Chorus

So my song for you this evening, it’s not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of our troubled northern land,
But lately I’ve been thinking and it just won’t leave my mind.
I’ll tell you of two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

Now, I don’t know what the moral is or how this song should end,
But I wondered just how many wars are fought between good friends.
And those who give the orders, they are not the ones to die.
It’s Bell and O’Malley, and the likes of you and I.

 Chorus

There were roses, roses
There were roses

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Irish Culture, Irish Music, Past and Present, random thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.