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about

The words of this started flowing out on May 20, 2009, as the details were released of the Ryan report on child abuse in Irish institutions.

lyrics

As I lie here
My body's black and blue
And my heart's as cold as the stones on the wall
That keep us in here like prisoners
for doing nothing at all
Never to go home for the crimes they tell us that we have done
Charged as a baby and taken away to the Brothers and the Nuns

Chorus: And they teach us about heaven
but they beat us into hell
They smile through our tears
Little children left in fear
This is no home

What is a child
As far as I know it's a little boy or girl who is forced to go
To the laundry house or make the rosary beads for the Holy Joes
And you're not allowed laugh or jump around and sing kids' songs
So you have to get back to work
Or you'll be sorry that you were born

As I'm older now
I lay here and I'm too sore to dream that this life can change
Is it wrong of me to want to go and to get my revenge
For the life I was forced to live in place of what I was refused
By the bastards who made me believe that my beatings were well deserved

When children cry
their mothers and their fathers should be able to come running and ask them why
To rub their knees and dry their eyes and kiss their child
But the children of the institutes could never know such care
Their mother's embrace is replaced by the cold hard bitin stare

In their own right minds
Nobody would say a child deserved to be abused
But nobody knew or would listen to the cries from the institutes
Now the blood drips slowly down through our society
And the stains of the past must never be left to wash away
Lest we forget the suffering which is still going on today

credits

from A Blast of a few Ballads on the Banjo, released March 30, 2020
Written by Derek Copley
Copyright Derek Copley

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Derek Copley Dublin, Ireland

Traditional music and song, expressed on some kind of a banjo, at times played on 5-string banjo in clawhammer style, and other times on tenor banjo.

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