In Your Boots, Seamus

from Coming of Age by Kieran Hegarty

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In Your Boots, Seamus. My grand uncle Seamus Walsh [Breathnach] was executed in the Irish Civil War, a century ago in 1923. The Anglo-Irish Treaty offered by Britain at the end of the War of Independence (1919 to 1921) where the proposed split of Ireland into two States (Northern Ireland & The Irish Free State) led to the Civil War. My grand uncle was in the 'anti-Treaty' IRA & was executed by a soldier from the Pro-Treaty IRA. After nearly a century of relative silence on the Irish Civil War, I think there's an opportunity for some 'truth & reconciliation' -similar to what the Nelson Mandela led government in South Africa offered to those who committed violent offences under the Apartheid regime. The intention was to create the necessary conditions for a peaceful co-existence of the hugely different population groups making up the National population. In a strange twist, an Irish immigrant to New Zealand met up in the 1950s with one of our relatives, Priest Father Bill Walsh. He said he knew the village of Corra where the Walsh family live...& later admitted to having executed Seamus.

lyrics

In Your Boots, Seamus Words & Music: Kieran Hegarty

A century on…& I’m in your boots, Seamus
Euphoria’s wave…is throwing me at the shore
As I fight for my life…and a vision of Ireland
To end England’s invasion…& eight-hundred year war.

But there is no strand…for me to stand on
There is no haven…on this coast at all…
Just treacherous rocks…& a monstrous cliff face
Irrupting in violence…in the heat of the storm.

Our Armed Force, once so united…now bitterly divided
Our fight more ferocious…than we’ve ever seen
Our vision of ‘Ireland’…has become a poisoned question
A wedge being driven to split…us…& our dreams.

There’s no middle road…or so we’re being told
The English say it’s a ‘take it…or leave it’
If the Anglo-Irish Treaty…is…not…signed
They’ll be back…to invade…& overrule it.

My mind was galvanized…by our bold Easter Uprising
Independence was proclaimed…we’d have our own Republic
My heart was mortified…when ‘The Tans’ burnt down our homestead
It lit a fire in my belly…put a hunger in my stomach.

So I can fight this Civil War…from the sacrifices we’ve bore
And maybe there’s a chance…of agreements
But I’ll never swear I’m loyal…to a British King
Nor to an Empire’s Dominion…& it’s demons.

We ambushed the ‘Green & Tans’…as Dromroe they overran
They came & took me captive…beat me ‘till I couldn’t speak
In the jail at Castleisland…they held me over three days
Took me out to Mt Falvie…………….and they ‘did away’ with me.

I was just 24…when the wave smashed me on the shore
And some would say…that my life was wasted
But a century on…many-enjoy-the freedom that I longed for
And I have played a part in what they’re tasting

I have played a part in what they’re tasting

I have played a part in what they’re tasting


© Kieran Hegarty 15/03/2023

credits

from Coming of Age, released April 22, 2023
Kieran Hegarty - acoustic guitar & vocals
Tony Burt - video & audio recording (use this link:)

vimeo.com/810518011/353ed7dc05

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Kieran Hegarty Wellington, New Zealand

New Zealander of Irish descent; songwriter & composer; multi-instrumentalist (acoustic guitar, tenor banjo, tin whistle); plays folk-rock, ballads & traditional tunes. Attended School of Creative Musicianship in Auckland and the London Guitar Institute. Member of Nu Kelts, London in early 90s. Song topics are of personal experiences, family history and political perspective as an environmentalist. ... more

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