When the troubles kicked off in Belfast in the 1960s Jimmy Mc Stephan met a girl called Kathleen. They lived in West Belfast and frequented the clubs there. They listened and danced to the songs of Dickie Valentine and Johnny Ray. Jimmy decided to join the Irish Republican Army or the "boys" as they were known. Kathleen gave him a choice it was to be her or them. He opted to fight for his country and gave up the only true love he ever had. He survived the troubles and passed away from old age in 2004. I wrote the song Kathleen's Choice following his death to capture a snap-shot of life back then. Click on the title Kathleens Choice to listen. Click on music stave for lyrics
MUSIC AND POETRY
Welcome to my music and poetry page. As you can see it also features images of Belfast Northern Ireland and links to further info on issues there. I have done this because I think that we should never forget the victims of conflict. The current wars happening world wide are reminders that conflict resolves nothing and creates more suffering for those caught up in them.
The image By artist Rita Duffy is the cover of an academic study by Professor Ed Cairns of the University of Ulster and is used by kind permission of the publishers Appletree Press Belfast. The study deals with the issue of children caught up in civil conflict in Northern Ireland
I sat cowering in a corner,
a frightened boy in my own home,
the cause of my fear was all around me,
yet it wasn't the darkness of the room,
for I was accustomed to that,
nor was I alone in my fear.
Suddenly I heard the scream of the dying,
blasted into oblivion by the staccato of spewing lead,
nothing new I had heard it before,
over and over again, “stay down”, my father shouted.
They've been saying that for seven hundred years I thought.
Bang! Bang! Bang! went the steady death beat,
we had got used to it, yet we feared,
like a virus it clung in the air, above the din,
I heard the sound of an ambulance siren,
the Royal Victoria Hospital was in for another busy night.
(P. McMahon 1983)
A night in Belfast reflects on a fierce gun battle fought on the streets of Ardoyne Belfast between the British Army and the Irish Republican Army that left many dead and injured on both sides. Our house was caught in the middle and bullets came through the windows from both sides.
We survived by cowering under our beds praying. The song watch the bullets fly is about army recruitment and the wars that many children find themselves in such as Iraq Afghanistan and the middle East. Click on the title to listen Watch the Bullets Fly Click music stave for lyrics
