m.hanly/j.moynihan/c.moore
I see a dark cloud rising outside Wexford town,
I see a hard rain on Ireland pouring down.
There’ll be no time to shelter. Let’s all make a stand.
O’Malley’s* plan we’ll have to ban or he’ll destroy the land.
CHORUS
It’s the workers are being used again,
The workers are being used again.
They want four nuclear stations, and who knows how many more?
If we are to stop them, we must defend Carnsore.
So men and women of Ireland, it’s time to show your hand.
The lessons of France and the USA must make us understand.
CHORUS
Two thousand jobs are promised, believe that if you can.
O’Malley’s boys with all their ploys, they canvassed around the land,
In Carnsore, Easkey or Kilrush the ESB would build –
Should one go wrong, despite their talk, thousands could be killed.
CHORUS
We never see their faces, these multi-national czars.
Our lands they rape from cape to cape, our seas they fill with tars.
The Westinghouse industrialist confessed to bribery,
I wonder if our leaders from corruption will be free.
CHORUS
It was in 1968 Jack Lynch went back to Cork,
To open Whiddy Island where a handful of men got work.
The multi-national oil tycoons, they all turned out in style,
Ten years later fifty French lay slaughtered in the oil.
CHORUS
And when it comes to dumping waste, here’s what they plan to do.
They’ll bury it in South Armagh and down in Wicklow too,
A nuclear waste triangle right at your front door
With poison manufactured at Windscale and Carnsore.
CHORUS
They’ve tested round the valleys where the Finn goes sparkling down
To join the Shrule at bonny Lifford town,
But if there’s radioactive waste where the stream goes running by
As down the Foyle the waters boil, you’ll know the reason why.
CHORUS
So gather round you people, the fight has just begun,
We fought before, we know the score, this fight must be won.
Remember we’ve the sun up there, waiting for to turn
The wind, the tide, the ocean wide, there’s energy to burn.
CHORUS
(* – Dessie O’ Malley was the then Minister for Energy in Ireland)
its all a bit vague by now. I joined the anti-nuclear movement in the late 70s.The first action was a festival in Carnsore which was very successful in that it brought the nuclear issue on to the front page.Out of that grew the anti-nuclear roadshow and this is my first memory of this song. Mick Hanly wrote the original and I recall further writing on the bus by johnny moynihan and I.This was an exciting and formative time for many people. We discovered the power that exists when people come together, with determination, to try and effect change.This collective, though relatively short lived, sowed seeds that are still growing 30 years on in many different areas of Irish society. Many of us are still on the bus.
This song was performed on the “Nuclear Late late show” and is (I think) on the Anti-Nuclear 12″ single.The band was The Early Grave Band and featured myself, Donal Lunny, Johnny Moynihan,JimmyFaulkner and Declan McNelis.Also on the show were Freddie White,Susie Kennedy,Jack Lynch,Matt Kelleghan,Mr Clarke, Frank the Yank,Louise,Marie Creed,Fergus Cronin and others whom I will recall asap