Only Our Rivers Run Free.

Only Our Rivers Run Free.

Lyrics: County Fermanagh Irish musician and songwriter Mickey MacConnell. (Written in 1965)
Vocals: Irish male folk group “Onóir” (Word translated from Irish to English meaning “Honor”).

Only Our Rivers Run Free.

When apples still grow in November,
When blossoms still bloom on each tree,
When leaves are still green in December,
It’s then that our land will be free.
I wander her hills and her valleys,
It’s still through my sorrows I see,
A land that have never known freedom,
Still only her rivers run free.
I drink to the death of her manhood,
For the men who’d rather have died,
Than to live in the cold chains of bondage,
To bring back their rights where denied.
Where are you now when we need you?
What burns where the flame used to be?
Are you gone like the snows of last winter?
Will only our rivers run free.
How sweet is the life for we’re crying,
And how mellow the wine but we’re dry,
How fragrant is the rose but it’s dying,
How gentle the wind but it sighs.
What good is in youth when it’s ageing?
What joy is in eyes that can’t see?
When there’s sorrow in sunshine and in flowers,
And still only our rivers run free.
And still only our rivers run free.

END

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Above quote by South African anti-apartheid activist and politician the late Nelson Mandela, (1918 – 2013).