Perhaps this one has become dated with its lyrics but it’s a belter of a song and the culmination from his first contemporary album of 1981. The song describes a young Irishman travelling over to England for the first time and the on-going suspicion with which he is viewed. It also articulates the experience of working Irish people so vividly encompassing the emigrant’s fears, frustrations, hopes and dreams, as well as themes of racial tension, the solace of the pub, nostalgia and homesickness.
It is a gutsy song not for the fainthearted with its high levels of energy and provocative lyrics describing the hopes and fears of this young man. Ultimately he resists the lure of the US and remains with a girl from home after being somewhat disillusioned with “nothing but the same old story”! This perception from the English may well remain that “we're nothing but a bunch of murderers” but that thinking can possibly be applied in the modern age to other ethnic minorities. Brady probably still performs this song at gigs, acoustic or with band, but probably only to insightful audiences.
Perhaps this one has become dated with its lyrics but it’s a belter of a song and the culmination from his first contemporary album of 1981. The song describes a young Irishman travelling over to England for the first time and the on-going suspicion with which he is viewed. It also articulates the experience of working Irish people so vividly encompassing the emigrant’s fears, frustrations, hopes and dreams, as well as themes of racial tension, the solace of the pub, nostalgia and homesickness.
It is a gutsy song not for the fainthearted with its high levels of energy and provocative lyrics describing the hopes and fears of this young man. Ultimately he resists the lure of the US and remains with a girl from home after being somewhat disillusioned with “nothing but the same old story”! This perception from the English may well remain that “we're nothing but a bunch of murderers” but that thinking can possibly be applied in the modern age to other ethnic minorities. Brady probably still performs this song at gigs, acoustic or with band, but probably only to insightful audiences.