Too Close To Home

Years of studying history at my school
Finding out how this world of ours came to be
Alliances - pacts - distortion of facts
Chunks of the globe forgotten - conviently?
Valuable lessons gained through study
But one major issue was evading me
And whilst we were shown how inhuman the nazis were
A similar thing was happening across the Irish sea

Too close to home - just too close
Too close to home - too near the bone (x2)

As Britain's treatment of Ireland becomes more known to me
Can I still believe the IRA are mere terrorists?
In the face of social, economic and military repression
That must be answered with equal aggression
In a constant war for freedom many lives are lost
But still Britain stays whatever the cost
Because "the border's not an issue" - they can't afford to lose
Just cloud it all in mystery - divide and confuse
Divide - Confuse
Divide - Confuse - Lose

Ireland - the issue that should be left alone?
Too near the bone and too close to home
Lessons learnt from and about the empire days
Just changing faces with the same power hungry ways
You really make me sick
Fucking liars, hypocrites
Used every dirty trick
You really make me sick

After recently reflection on my history studies throughout school, I came to realise tha talthough we studied European modern history at some depth, Ireland was never spotlighted in the same way as other European nations, almost like it doesn't feature in European affairs. This made me naturally curious, and as I find out more about Irish hsitory, particularly in the 20th century, I see the reaons why it doesn't receive the same attention. Britain has committed every atrocity in the book in Ireland (and still does). Now, Britain hangs onto a piece of it's earliest colonial conquest, in an artificially created six county state (Northern Ireland), that it governs deirectly from Westminster with the aid of its contrived loyalist majority and of course, the armed forces. Whilst we are continually informed that the U.K. is free, Northern Ireland definitely is not free and attempts to "normalise" affairs there prove fruitless, as the nationalist community will always resist, by whatever means open to them - British imperialist repression and torture. We are continually told that the I.R.A. are terrorist scum by the British propaganda machine, but all they are fighting for is the right of self-determination. Is that soo much to ask for? No way! "Britain out of Ireland!"