1798 Thinking
“Thats 1798 thinking”
~ Longford phrase meaning its an old fashioned notion and idealist, unlike modern reality
To think like we did, in those distant days
So unlike as we do in these modern times
That all are equal and Irish, though Anglo or Scot
Not answerable for their forefathers crimes
For we are all of sinners born
When those sinners wielded swords and guns
True peace we will never here see
If we pass the sins of the fathers to the sons…
But, those folk of seventeen ninety eight
When church backed state against the poor
The poor were rich in spirit and heart
Of the justice in the cause were sure
That a small nation among the great could stand
That three as one, while being still their own could be
Now as of freedom to the Great Nations is to slavery thrown
Why are we blind to the vision that they could see?
That every man, from the castle Lord
To the Spailpin along the road
The Traveller in his cart, the farmer on his fields
Have walked the life their forefathers strode
That their sons will and must and their kine
Must without the outsider make a land there own
For how is a man free if he must run
To make money for a king who has no throne?
When we see our folk from homes thrown
So Mammonites can make money without sweat of brow
From the tears of the dispossessed like former times
Yet of the wrongs of the British cry?
In 98 the poor together stood
Would have to for another hundred years and more
To keep the bailiffs and the Emergency Men
From torching the thatch and breaking in the door.
That is our thinking, our heritage proud
Not trendy in these times that call themselves progressive
We worry have we enough when we party our excess
We are not evolutionary – rather are regressive.
Who matters more, the opinion of a stranger
That we are cool, or the small hand of our own blood?
Who think we are the world for we are all of theirs
We scorn this because others say we should.
So we can have careers and make profits for firms
Who want billions instead of millions, and we race
Until we die, owning more than we could ever pay
The banks close in, our kin have nothing, we have no place.
Even a grave is a luxury: though not in Ireland yet
But what is Europe today is Ireland tomorrow
Imagine, your children may not get to see
The place where you were laid in times of plenty and of sorrow.
Every family needs to own their own home
Its common sense, not communism
Our home is not an assett to be rented forever
We are not slaves to the gods of capitalism.
When times our faith was forbidden, the quiet word given
Register as Protestant, worship, or you will be marked in
In times to come, freedom to be Catholic will come again
To do so is no crime against man and to God is no sin.
Why not each partner works half of a week
Yet each be seen as working a full time job
Yet take their turns at keeping a parent always in the family home
The best arms to cradle a child when they sob.
In times of hardship, we did not drift, abandon and walk away
When things got hard, or harder then they were in 98…
No, they thought different, and we should think like they
Only then can Ireland, America and the world be great!