Famine Reynolds Extended Mix Lyrics - Sinead Oconnor

(O'Connor, Clayton, Simenon, Reynolds) 

[The extended version of "Famine", released in 1995, from the cd-single "Famine"] 

There is more in us than we know about. The famine, which happened 150 years ago. 

It three lifetimes at most. Things that happen than were handed on from father 

to son, from mother to daughter, down to this day. They are within us now, and we 

don deal with them. And it seems to me, this is what interesting about a lot 

of Irish music now, that it is the carrier for this kind of feeling, and for this 

kind of emotion, that we have no other expression for it because politically we 

deny it, intellectually we deny it. Our literature ....... doesn deal with this, 

our sentiment doesn deal with this. But music, it in the music, it seems to me. 

The culture can actually carry those things in al kinds of visible ways, in gesture, 

in movement, in language, in humour and in music. 

Okay, I want to talk about Ireland 

Specifically I want to talk about the "famine" 

About the fact that there never really was one 

There was no "famine" 

See Irish people were only allowed to eat potatoes 

All of the other food, meat, fish, vegetables, 

were shipped out of the country under armed guard 

To England while the Irish people starved 

And then in the middle of all this 

They gave us money not to teach our children Irish 

And so we lost our history 

And this is what I think is still hurting me 

You see we're like a child that's been battered 

Has to drive itself out of it's head because it's frightened 

Still feels all the painful feelings 

But they lose contact with the memory 

And this leads to massive self-destruction 

Alcoholism, drug addiction 

All desperate attempts at running 

And in it's worst form 

Becomes actual killing 

And if there ever is gonna be healing 

There has to be remembering 

And then grieving 

So that there then can be forgiving 

There has to be knowledge and understanding 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all come from 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all belong 

An American army regulation 

Says you mustn't kill more than ten percent of a nation 

'Cos to do so causes permanent "psychological damage" 

It's not permanent but they didn't know that 

Anyway during the supposed "famine" 

We lost a lot more than 10% of our nation 

Through deaths on land or on ships of emigration 

But what finally broke us is not starvation 

No it's use in the controlling of our education 

School go on about "Black 47" 

On and on about "The terrible famine" 

But what they don't say is in truth 

There really never was one 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all come from 

All the lonely people 

where do they all belong 

So let's take a look can we 

The highest statistics of child abuse in the EEC 

And we say we're a Christian country 

But we've lost contact with our history 

See we used to worship God as a mother 

We're suffering from post traumatic stress disorder 

Look at all our old men in the pubs 

Look at all our young people on drugs 

We used to worship God as a mother 

Now look at what we're doing to each other 

We've even made killers of ourselves 

The most child-like trusting people in the Universe 

And this is what's wrong with us 

Our history books the parent figures lied to us 

I see the Irish 

As a race like a child 

That got itself smashed in the face 

And if there ever is gonna be healing 

There has to be remembering 

And then grieving 

So that there then can be forgiving 

There has to be knowledge and understanding 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all come from 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all belong 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all come from 

(That I can tell you in one word) 

All the lonely people 

Where do they all belong 

And if there ever is gonna be healing 

There has to be remembering 

And then grieving 

So that there then can be forgiving 

There has to be knowledge and understanding 

And if there ever is gonna be healing 

There has to be remembering 

And then grieving 

So that there then can be forgiving 

There has to be knowledge and understanding 

We stand on the brink of a great achievement 

In this Ireland there is no solution 

To be found to our disagreements 

By shooting each other 

Because of our tradition everyone here knows who he is 

and what God expects him to do 

Forgiveness, forgiveness 

Knowledge 

Yes 

And understanding 

Forgiveness 

Equate, be driven 

Frogiveness 

Knowledge 

Yes 

And understanding 

(repeat the above several times)