Smoke & Strong Whiskey

Kids wear white garters and smell like their mothers

Whose husbands and fathers alike

Drink black beer in the same public houses

Smelling of smoke and strong whiskey

Mammies and daddies and skipping ropes

Lectures from priests living in hope

They've not mistaken the brand of their coats

Paid for by their spiritual teachings

A busy year this, the streets running red

How many sent to a nuptial bed

And how many sent home to a winter of graves

And how many wait in for the slaughter



Chorus: 

Oh the holy ground

Ceud mile failte, there's saints and there's scholars to see

Oh the holy ground

The far away hills ain't as green as they once used to be



It's Easter again and we cannot forget

Brothers and sisters and all that was said

So practise your pipes, stand proud in the wet

But the eyes of the world are upon you



God in his mercy has given us men

To lead us to peace but they can't bring an end

To the profits that pay off the lease on the land

We still send them over the water

Seventeen years and Kelly is a man

Who stands on the street with a gun in his hand

Protecting the pipers that play in the band

While the enemy waits with an army



Chorus 



Dia le hEireann, suckle the empire

Dia le hEireann, suffer the loss

Of the green to the blue while the media feeds

On the blood and the pain and the hatred

Father walks home on the colourless night

And the organisation has blinded his sight

His wife and his kids are sleeping tonight

In the arms of sweet Jesus and Mary



Chorus