Irish Ways And Irish Laws Lyrics - Sinead Oconnor

Once upon a time there were 

Irish Ways and Irish Laws 

Villages of Irish blood 

Waking to the morning 

Waking to the morning 

Then the Vikings came around (1) 

Turned us up and turned us down 

Started building boats and towns 

They tried to change our living 

tried to change our living 

Cromwell and his soldiers came (2) 

Started centuries of shame 

But they could not make us turn (3) 

We are a river flowing 

We're a river flowing 

Again, again the soldiers came 

Burnt our houses stole our grain 

Shot the farmers in their fields 

Working for livings 

Working for a living 

800 years we have been down (4) 

The secret of the water sound 

Has kept the spirit of a man 

Above the pain descending 

Above the pain descending 

Today the struggle carries on 

I wonder will I live so long 

To see the gates being opened up (5) 

To a people and their freedom 

A people and their freedom 

Once upon a time there was 

Irish Ways and Irish Laws 

Villages of Irish blood 

Waking to the morning 

Waking to the morning 

Notes 

(1) 

The first documented Viking landing took place in 795. Until the 

Anglo-Norman invasion in 1170 the Vikings would play an important 

role in Ireland, both politically and economically. They created trade 

routes, founded kingdoms, and built the first towns in Ireland, 

including Dublin, Cork and Limerick. 

(2) 

Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649 at the head of a 

huge army, by May 1650 he had crushed opposition in all but the West. 

(By 1652 the Irish population had fallen to .7 m. In 1641 it had 

been 1.5 m. By 1660 .5 m cattle were being exported annually to 

England.) 

(3) 

Both Cromwell's and subsequent colonisation campaigns used the twin 

techniques of "planting" English and Scotish settlers and forcing 

some locals to change or "Turn" their religion to the Protestant 

faith. So here he uses the ambiguity of the term "turn" to echo both 

the image of the unbowed Irish peasant and a metaphor for Irish 

History flowing like a un-turnable river. 

(4) 

Since the first English invasion in 1170 

(5) 

"Gates" here evokes both images of the be-sieged walled cities of the 

17th century and also of the present day prison camps in the North 

of Ireland which at the time the song was being written (in the late 

1970's early 1980's) were the subject of much political campaigning 

including Hunger Strikes by the inmates.