Submitted by Dotsey
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
       G                           C              G
  O me name is Joe McDonnell, from Belfast town I came
       C           G             D
  That city I will never see again
      G                             C           G
  For in the town of Belfast I spent many happy days
    C                 G          D
  I love that town in oh so many ways
           Am      C        Am            C              G
  For it's there I spent my childhood and found for me a wife
    Am              C        G       D
  I then set out to make for her a life
      G                               C              G
  But all my young ambitions met with bitterness and hate
         C            G               D
  I soon found myself inside a prison gate


Chorus
          Am   C         Am              C                  G
  And you dare call me a terrorist while you look down your gun
         Am               C          G        D
  When I think of all the deeds that you have done
          G
  You had plundered many nations divided many lands
          C                Am                C            D
  You had terrorised their peoples you ruled with an iron hand
          G                     C            D
  And you brought this reign of terror to my land


Verse 2
  Through those many months internment in the Maidstone and the Maize
  I thought about my land throughout those days
  Why my country was divided why I was now in jail
  Imprisoned without crime without trial
  And though I love my country I am not a bitter man
  I've seen cruelty and injustice at first hand
  So then one faithful morning I shook bold freedom's hand
  For right or wrong I'd try to free my land

Chorus.....

Verse 3
  Then one October morning trapped in a lions den
  I found myself in prison once again
  I was committed to the H-blocks for fourteen years or more
  On the blanket the conditions they were poor
  Then a hunger strike we did commence for the dignity of man
  But it seemed to me that no one gave a damn
  But now I am a saddened man I've watched my comrades die
  If only people cared or wondered why

Chorus.....

Verse 4
  May God shine on you Bobby Sands for the courage you have shown
  May your glory and your fame be widely known
  And Francis Hughes and Ray McCreesh who died unselfishly
  And Patsy O'Hara and the next in line is me
  And those who lay behind me may your courage be the same
  And I pray to God my life was not in vain
  Ah but sad and bitter was the year of 1981
  For everything I've lost and nothing's won