Thousands Are Sailing by The Pogues

Thousands Are Sailing is a song by Irish band The Pogues, released in their 1988 album If I Should Fall From Grace With God.

The song deals with the massive migration from Ireland to the USA caused by the Irish potato famine in the 1840s.

REFUGEES FROM FEAR OF PRIESTS WITH EMPTY PLATES

The causes that lead people to abandon their countries are multiple and varied. Most people are forced to leave their homeland and families behind due to the hazards of political persecution or armed conflicts. Sometimes, when your life is at stake, fleeing is the only way to survive. When you belong to a catholic culture, and you see people starve all around, even priests having to endure the shortage of food, then you know it’s time to seek for refuge elsewhere, otherwise, you are bound to perish.

The great Irish famine was the consequence of a potato blight that infected the crops and deprived the Irish poor of their staple food, the potato, thus causing massive starvation in a long period of Irish history, at a time when the whole island was still under British rule.

During this period, about one million people died and over a million more emigrated.

If you want to know more about the Irish Great Famine, you ought to see this documentary:

Ireland’s Great Hunger and the Irish Diaspora, narrated by Gabriel Byrne

ON A COFFIN SHIP I CAME HERE

In the lyrics video you can see a ship covered with skeletons. This ship is a bronze sculpture, part of the Famine National Monument in Murrisk, County Mayo.

The term coffin ship has two meanings; one refers to the overloaded ships that carried Irish immigrants away, often sick and always hungry.  The mortality rate during the voyage was between 20% and 50 %.

Hence they are sailing:

To a land of opportunity

That some of them will never see

The other meaning of coffin ship defines a vessel that is more valuable to its owner sunk than afloat and is, therefore, overinsured to provide a considerable benefit in case it sinks.

At the time of the Famine, some Irish coffin ships were both: they carried immigrants and were likely to sink, so that they were overinsured.

An example of this was the Hannah, a ship carrying Irish immigrants to Canada that sunk in 1849.  49 passengers died in the shipwreck, not the captain and the two officers, who took the only lifeboat and abandoned the sinking ship.

If we compare this historical shipwreck with the Titanic’s, either for implying a much smaller death toll  or for transporting only Irish farmers fleeing the Famine, made this story much less worth making a major motion picture.

The Dunbrody is the replica of a coffin ship found in New Ross, Wexford County; a tourist attraction that you should visit.

The Dunbrody - Irish Famine Ship

REFUGEES FROM GUILT AND WEEPING EFFIGIES

It’s quite unlikely that the effigies mentioned in the song are the same as the ones located on the Dublin quays, as these were not presented to the public until 1997 and the song was released in 1988.

The guilt may refer to the feeling produced by the need to leave family and friends behind: the weeping effigies saying goodbye on the quay.

DUBLIN, the spectacular and expressive IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL, IRELAND

In the song we can find references to famous Irish immigrants or famous descendants of Irish immigrants who represent the spirit of Ireland migration.

And "the blackbird" broke the silence

As you whistled it so sweet

And in Brendan Behan’s footsteps

I danced up and down the street

BRENDAN BEHAN (1923-1964) was one of the greatest writers of all times, Irish Republican, heavy drinker, author of many witty remarks, such as: “If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.”

You can also visit his sculpture in Dublin, it’s located next to the prison where he spent some years, sitting on a bench and whistling to a blackbird, all of them in bronze.

Here, you can listen to his views on various issues:

Tipped our hats to Mister Cohen

Dear old Times Square's favourite bard

“Mister Cohen” is GEORGE M. COHAN (1878-1942). He was an American entertainer and composer, born to Irish catholic parents, considered the creator of Broadway American anthem due to his prolific career as songwriter.

You can know more about his work here:

AUDIO AND VIDEO:

George M. Cohan, 'The Man Who Created Broadway,' Was An Anthem Machine

Then we raised a glass to JFK

And a dozen more besides

JFK or JOHN FITGERALD KENNEDY (1917-1963), was the first catholic president of the USA; all of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants.

THE ISLAND IT IS SILENT NOW,

BUT THE GHOSTS STILL HAUNT THE WAVES

Even though Ireland is an island, surrounded by a raging sea - perhaps populated by the ghosts of the drowned in the shipwrecks of coffin ships - some interpretations of the song identify the island of the song as Ellis Island.

Ellis Island was the gateway to the USA for immigrants from all over the world from 1892 until 1954. Here, the newcomers were “inspected” and “processed”. Quoting  Wikipedia; “Today, over 100 million Americans — about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States — can trace their ancestry to immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country”

In this documentary, you can listen to testimonies of how immigrants’ health and capacities were tested.

Immigration Through Ellis Island Documentary 

Next to Ellis island is Liberty Island, where the newcomers could enjoy the view of the symbol of the USA, the Statue of Liberty. Inside the statue, you can read Emma Lazarus sonnet, The New Colossus, but you can also read it and listen to it here.

The New Colossus – Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

If you want to know more about the writing of this poem and its current controversy you should watch this video:

"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor": Trump Admin Attacks Emma Lazarus's Iconic Poem on Statue of Liberty

POSTCARDS WE'RE MAILING OF SKY-BLUE SKIES AND OCEANS FROM ROOMS THE DAYLIGHT NEVER SEES

These lines refer to the bad conditions some immigrants were forced to live after their arrival in their new countries. Very often it was difficult for Irish immigrants to find a job. This discrimination had started in the UK, where NINA signs were common. These were called NINA as they read: “Help wanted- No Irish need apply”.

If you have enough knowledge of the Irish idiosyncrasy, you certainly will know that they adore singing their joys and sorrows away, so, from 1860 on, songs like this could be heard:

No Irish Need Apply Song

DEBATE 

• Recently, there has been much public debate on the media related to the arrival of immigrants in Europe and the USA.
• People seem to have opposing stands on immigration. Some feel that all of them are entitled to seek asylum and governments of any country are ethically obliged to admit them.
• Others oppose strongly to this idea providing arguments such as they are enjoying financial and medical help without having paid taxes beforehand; or that they usually cause an increase in unemployment by reducing the native’s opportunities to find a job.

Mississippi Goddam by NINA SIMONE

Mississippi Goddam was written in 1964 by Nina Simone. It was a response to the upheaval brought about by the assassinations and threats carried out by white supremacists against Civil Rights activists in US Southern states.

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

The civil rights movement’s main aim was to ensure legal rights for African-Americans in the USA. During the 60s, the movement gained force by organizing protests based o non-violent campaigns and civil disobedience.

These activities were seen as a menace by the white supremacists and other racist groups, which took terrorist actions. The most outrageous ones took place in the Southern states. In the song, Simone mentions three examples:

Alabama: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. An act of terrorism which killed four girls and injured 22 others on 15th September 1963.

Tennessee: Civil Rights lawyer Zephaniah Alexander Looby died at the bomb attack of his house in Nashville on April 19th, 1960.

And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam

The most conspicuous of these acts was the assassination of Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 by a member of the Ku Klus Klan.

Medgar Evers was a World War II veteran and a Civil Rights activist whose aim was to end segregation. He lived in Jackson, Mississippi, immersed in a white supremacist population and enduring constant threats of death.

For this very reason, both FBI and local police officers regularly escorted him home. However, on the day of his assassination, the police forces were inexplicably not present.

According to the sources, he was shot from his back, and when taken to the hospital, he was refused entry, as people of colour were not allowed to enter.

In the trial, an all-white jury could not agree on a verdict and, as a consequence, the accused was acquitted.

Not until 1994 was he convicted following a new trial based on new evidence and after Evers’s body had been exhumed for an autopsy.

In 1964, Bob Dylan released a more explicit version of this song, giving his personal interpretation of Medgar Evers’ assassination. The song is called "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and assumes how poor whites are manipulated by the rich whites to avoid responsibility.

Here you can listen to Dylan singing the song during a march in Washinton in  August 1963.

 but this whole country is full of lies
I don't trust you any more

Mississippi Goddam was Simone’s first civil rights song. According to her words, it was written “In a rush of fury, hatred and determination” and it was supposed to be “like throwing ten bullets back at them”. The single was boycotted in some Southern radio stations and in some cases they even destroyed the copies and sent them back to the record company.

From that moment on the American music industry was reluctant to publish her music. She became so disappointed and frustrated that she left the country in1970, first she flew to Barbados and then she lived in different countries for the rest of her life.

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

These lines referred to the relations between races in the USA during decades. The roots of the term Sister Sadie can be found in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Sadie was Slave Jim’s wife and Widow Douglas’ cook.

Sadie became the female counterpart of Jim Crow, a character used to portray African-Americans in an offensive way. What Simone is trying to say here is that the message they received was that if you looked like a lady and behaved like a lady, the whites wouldn’t call you Sister Sadie, but call you by your real name. In other words, what was the use of doing things according to the rules if you were not treated as equal?

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

This is an ironic remark aimed at an audience that was partially white. It’s supposedly meant to contrast the dramatic facts described but later on she says:

I made you thought I was kiddin'

What makes us realize that she’s really enraged and she’s talking in earnest.

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me

With these lines, Simone is addressing The COINTELPRO (Portmanteau word from COunter INTELligence PROgram), a programme launched by the FBI to discredit the civil rights movement by describing their members as communists.

Americans have never held communists under a high esteem, but you can imagine the public opinion  just in the middle of the Cold War era ad having into consideration the URSS-USA relationships (see 1960 Bay Of Pigs Invasion and  1962 Cuban Missile Crisis,  and maybe you will begin to understand why Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 was also considered a plot).

Desegregation ad reunification

The civil rights movement and the fight for equal rights was a long-term battle that lasted decades. The trouble and strife of the African-American population are reflected in music, cinema and literature.

The screen version of Medgar Ever’s assassination was released in 1966 and titled Ghosts of Mississippi, however, the plot is based on the story of the 1994 trial. Here you can see the trailer.

A much more successful depiction of the racist scenario is accomplished in 1988 Mississippi Burning. Set in a fictional Mississippi county and loosely based on the disappearance and assassination of three civil rights workers in 1964.

Here you can see the trailer of Alan Parker’s film starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents investigating the case and meeting the hostility of both residents and local authorities.

As for literature, we can find an excellent example in Clock Without Hands, a novel published on September 18, 1961, offering a plausible plot which describes with mastery contemporary characters and situations from the point of view of a reliable eye-witness, the Southern novelist Carson McCullers.

Here you can read one of the few reviews of this book:

A Clock Without Hands Review

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960, is another example of a novel inviting to the  discussion of the right of a human being to kill or spare the life of another, apart from that, the author also tells us the story of the family of a lawyer defending a black man falsely accused of raping the daughter of a white family

Here you can read the original review published in the New York Times:

To Kill A Mockingbird Review.

Cities in Dust by SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES

SONG FACTS

Cities in Dust is a song written by British band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1986 as part of their album Tinderbox.

The song refers to the volcanic eruption of the Vesuvius on 24^th August, AD 79 with the subsequent disappearance of the nearby cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii under the lava as well as the suffering and death of the victims whose remains were discovered some centuries later.

Lyrics Video

YOUR FORMER GLORIES AND ALL THE STORIES

Historians have learned about the Vesuvius eruption from the account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman lawyer and magistrate, nephew of Pliny the Elder, the natural philosopher and navy commander who died near Pompeii on the day of the eruption while he was observing the natural disaster. This event is described in the two letters that he sent to the historian Tacitus who was interested in the details of the death of Pliny the Elder.

Eyewitness reports are great help to visualise what really happened but animation technology provides a more striking impression. Such is the case with the following.

A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation

YOUR CITY LIES IN DUST

Vulcanologists found some relevant information in Pliny’s description and that’s the reason why this kind of eruption is known as Plinian.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was the most catastrophic in the European continent. The thermal energy released was 100,000 times bigger than the energy released by the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings.

In this video you have a brief guide of volcanoes and their different types.

WERE YOU PRAYING AT THE LARES SHRINE?

Roman religion was pantheistic. This means both that Romans adored a great number of deities and that their doctrine regarded the universe as a manifestation of God. God was thought to be everywhere, even in objects. This is exemplified by the cult of the Dii Familiaris or Lares. These protector spirits were assigned to different parts of the house such as the door, the threshold, even the hinge.

Some deities were related to nature like Ceres, goddess of agriculture or Neptune, god of freshwater and the sea. Vulcan was the god of the fire, including the fire of the volcanoes. An annual festival, the Vulcanalia, was held in his honour– by a strange coincidence on August 23, just a day before the eruption of the Vesuvius.

CAUGHT IN THE THROES

A death throe is an intense and violent pain accompanying death, in other words, the agony of death. Hundreds of years after the eruption archaeologists found cavities in the hardened ash were the decomposed bodies had lain for centuries. These cavities were filled with plaster to form figures of victims at the very moment of their deaths, that is to say, caught in the throes.

In the following video you can see how this work was made and what brought to light.

Reconstructing the Faces of Pompeii Victims

The cause of the death of most of the victims was presumably suffocation but in recent years a new theory has arisen.

Investigating How Mt. Vesuvius's Victims Died

ROBERT HARRIS’ POMPEII

The author Robert Harris published the book Pompeii in 2003. It tells the story of the aquarius Attillius trying to find the place where the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct supplying water to the region, has broken and the reasons for his predecessor’s disappearance. On the way he discovers a corrupted Pompeii and the threat of an imminent disaster. 

The story shows historical credibility and is inspired by actual events, such as the previous earthquake that the city had endured seventeen years before; and people, describing the last hours of Pliny the Elder up to the time of his death.

Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2

FACTS

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" appeared in U2’s 1983 album War. It’s an overtly political song describing the events that happened in the Northern Ireland city of Derry on the 30^th of January, 1972 when British troops shot and killed unarmed people taking part in a civil rights march. This day was called the Bloody Sunday.

Video with lyrics:

1972 BLOODY SUNDAY

In this well-known picture we can see Father Edward Daly waving a blood-stained handkerchief while trying to escort a mortally wounded marcher.

The incident was the most significant episode of the Troubles, the name the British government used to refer to the armed confrontation taking place between Catholics and Unionists in Northern Ireland.

The march was a way to protest against interment, which was a mass arrest without trial of people suspected of being involved with the IRA.

On that day 13 people were killed, one more person died 4 months later on account of the injuries received during the attack of the army.

The Saville Inquiry was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the incident. After a 12-year investigation, a report was made public in 2010 concluding that all those shot were unarmed and that none were posing a serious threat. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom.

The episode served to increase Catholic and Unionist violent confrontations and IRA’s terrorist attacks.

“TONIGHT WE CAN BE AS ONE”

From 1^st January 1801 until 6^th December 1922 Ireland was part of the UK.

Towards the end of the XIX century the Irish tried to achieve Home Rule, a kind of Irish autonomy without leaving the UK. This initiative was strongly opposed by the Unionists who were particularly influential in The Ulster region.

In 1916 the Easter Rising took place. This was an attempt to win independence. The organizers seized key locations in Dublin but the rising lasted only seven days being its leaders court-martialled and executed.

After the General Election of 1919, the parliament members belonging to Sinn Féin set up an Irish Parliament and declared an Irish Republic. A War of Independence followed, whose result was the creation of the Irish Free State and the partition of Ireland, as the six counties of The Ulster remained part of the UK.

As a consequence of the strong opposition between anti-treaty and pro-treaty forces, a Civil War broke out. The British supplies led to the defeat of the anti-treaty supporters led by Eamon de Valera.

Years later, de Valera won the elections and drew up a new constitution. In 1949, the Republic of Ireland was created, a “really” free state at last.

In this video you can listen to Irish Conor Cunneen summarising the history of Ireland using poetry and narration in a unique Irish way.

A Short History Of Ireland - Vikings, English, Famine, Emigration, Irish Civil War.

And Northern Ireland? In the region there have been “troubles” since the partition but these seemed to get worse in the 1970’s.

Not until 1998’s Good Friday Agreement did both parts agree to a truce and the progressive disarmament.

Among other things they agreed on the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a kind of autonomous government for the region.

The following video summarises the conflict.

The Northern Ireland conflict:

And here you have an illustrative example of the effects of the conflict on the daily lives of Northern Irish.

Northern Ireland divided by walls.

Whatever next?

Nowadays, the conflict goes on but from a different perspective. Maybe it is not a question of religion or politics anymore. It is just a question of economy.

You can get some up-to-date information from this video:

Brexit and the Irish border problem.

“WHEN FACT IS FICTION AND TV REALITY”

In the song Bono sings this line. What do you think he is referring to?

Maybe the way in which the media  omitted some information at that time?

The Army’s version of the event was published on 1 February 1972 in The Guardian:

Some versions of the front page of the Daily Mirror show this subhead:

The coverage of the news in the Republic could have been different, anyway, he starts the song with the line “ I can’t believe the news today”; he could also refer to his own feeling of outrage.

“I WON’T HEED THE BATTLE CALL”

At the peak of the conflict, young people were subject to fall into the trap of active involvement in the fight.

Have a look at this anti-terrorist advert trying to persuade the Irish people to report on the activities of their fellow citizens.

Would you do that yourself? What could be the consequences?

Anti-terrorism advert:

HISTORY ON THE WALLS

If you visit the cities of Belfast and Derry and look at the walls of the buildings, you will find a visual encyclopaedia depicting the political and religious divisions of Northern Ireland. Depending on the area, Irish republican or Unionist, the varied themes reflect the most relevant events and dearest values to each community. In this video you can have a look at the history on The Ulster walls.

The Murals of Northern Ireland

MORE BLOODY SUNDAYS

The term “bloody” can be defined as: “covered with blood or characterised by cruelty”. But in informal British English, the word “bloody” is used to express anger or emphasis as in: “Bloody shit!” For instance, if you don’t like Sundays, you will say “Oh no, another bloody Sunday!” However, this is not the case.

All along history there have been more bloody Sundays, Sundays characterised by violent events derived from a confrontation between protesters and armed government forces. The most relevant being the one happening on 22^nd January 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, which is also referred to as Red Sunday.

A crowd of demonstrators asking for the improvement of working conditions were shot by soldiers causing an unknown number of deaths and injuries. The massacre provoked a series of massive strikes and was considered a key event leading to the Revolution of 1917.

22nd January 1905: Bloody Sunday massacre in Saint Petersburg.

DEBATE

·       Why do marches and demonstrations usually take place on Sundays?

·       Taking part in a demonstration is a way to make a petition against state plans. How effective could it be?

·       Is there a more effective way to prevent a government from taking the “wrong” decisions?

·       The message of the song is summarised in the following line. Is it true that there is nothing left but losers once the war is over?

And the battle's just begun.

There's many lost, but tell me who has won?