90 Miles From Dublin

G            D         Am     C
I’m ninety miles from Dublin 
     G      C        G
Town I’m in a H-Block cell
 G          Am    C    G        
To help you understand my plight
                    C
 this story now I’ll tell
G      Am   C     G      
I’m on the Blanket Protest my 
              Am  C
efforts must not fail
     G      D         Am       C 
I’m joined by men and women in 
 G        C       G
the Blocks and Armagh Gaol


[Verse 2]
G        D         Am     
It all began the morning I was 
C     G      C        G
dragged to Castlerea
G          Am    C    G        
And though it was three years 
                    C
ago it seems like yesterday
G           Am   C     G       
Three days kicked and beaten 
             Am         C
and then I was forced to sign
     G      D         Am    C    
Confessions that convicted me of 
 G          C       G
deeds that were not mine


[Verse 3]
G         D       Am     C    
Sentenced in a Diplock court 
G          C    G
my protest it began
G          Am            C    G
I could not wear that prison 
                     C
gear I was a Blanket Man
G          Am   C     G        
I’ll not accept your status 
            Am  C
I’ll not be criminalised
     G      D     Am       C    
That’s the issue in the Blocks 
G        C       G
for which we give our lives


Continues after the ad
Remove ads
[Verse 4]
G       D       Am     C     G
Over there in London how 
      C        G
they’d laugh and sneer
G          Am         C    G   
If they could only make us wear
                         C
 their loathsome prison gear
G            Am       C     G  
Prisoners of War is what we are
                  Am  C
 and that we will remain
     G      D         Am       C 
The Blanket Protest must not end 
 G        C       G
till our status we regain


[Verse 5]
G            D      Am          
I’ve been beaten round the 
    C     G      C        G
romper room because I won’t say sir
G          Am        C    G    
Frogmarched down the landing 
                        C
and pulled back by the hair
G              Am   C            
I’ve suffered degradation 
 Am  C
humility and pain
     G      D         Am       C 
My spirit does not falter british
 G        C       G
 torture is in vain


[Verse 6]
G            D         Am     C
I’ve been held in scalding 
       G      C        G
water my skin with deck scrubs torn
G                  Am    C     
Scratched and cut from head to 
G                            C
foot and thrown out on the floor
G        Am      C     G       
Suffered mirror searches probed
             Am  C
 by drunken bears
     G      D         Am       C 
I’ve listened to my comrades’ 
 G        C       G
scream and sob their lonely prayers


[Verse 7]
G            D         Am     C
Now with the news that’s coming
         G      C        G
 in the Protest must not fail
G            Am       C       G
We’ve been joined by thirty 
                       C
women across in Armagh Gaol
G      Am     C     G          
Pay attention Irish men and 
          Am  C
Irish women too
     G      D         Am   C     
Show the Free State government 
G        C       G
their silence will not do


[Verse 8]
G            D         Am     C
Though its ninety miles from 
     G      C        G
Dublin it seems so far away
G          Am    C    G        
It’s like we’re getting more 
               C
support from the USA
G            Am      C     G   
Now you’ve heard the story I am
              Am  C
 in this living hell
     G      D         Am       C 
Remember ninety miles away I’m in
 G        C       G
 my H-Block cell