Sinéad O’Connor - Famine lyrics

OK, I want to talk about Ireland
Specifically I want to talk
About the "famine" about the fact that there
Never really was one there was no "famine"
See, Irish people were only
Allowed to eat potatoes
All of the other food, meat, fish, vegetables
Were shipped out of the
Country under armed guard
To England while the Irish people starved
And then, on the middle of all this
They gave us money not to
Teach our children Irish
And so we lost our history
And this is what I think is still hurting me
See, we're like a child that's been battered
Has to drive it'self out of
It's head because it's frightened
Still feels all the painful feelings
But they lose contact with the memory
And this leads to massive self-destruction
Alcoholism, drug addiction
All desperate attempts at running
And in it's worst form becomes actual killing
And if there ever is gonna be healing
There has to be remembering and then grieving
So that there then can be forgiving
There has to be knowledge and understanding
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from

An American army regulation
Says you mustn't kill more than
10% of a nation 'Cause to do so causes
Permanent "psychological damage"
It's not permanent, but they didn't know that
Anyway, during the supposed "famine"
We lost a lot more than 10% of our nation
Through deaths on land or
On ships of emigration
But what finally broke us was not starvation
But it's use in the
Controlling of our education
Schools go on about "Black 47"
On and on about "The terrible famine"
But what they don't say is in truth
There really never was one

(Excuse me) all the lonely people
(I'm sorry, excuse me)
Where do they all come from
(that I can tell you in one word ²)
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong

So let's take a look, shall we
The highest statistics of child
Abuse in the EEC
And we say we're a Christian country
But we've lost contact with our history
See, we used to worship God as a mother
We're suffering from post
Traumatic stress disorder
Look at all our old men in the pubs
Look at all our young people on drugs
We used to worship God as a mother
Now look at what we're doing to each other
We've even made killers of ourselves
The most child-like trusting people
In the Universe
And this is what's wrong with us
Our history books
The parent figures lied to us
I see the Irish as a race like a child
That got it'self bashed in the face
And if there ever is gonna be healing
There has to be remembering and then grieving
So that there then can be forgiving
There has to be knowledge and understanding
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from

We stand on the brink of a great achievement
In this Ireland there is no solution
To be found to our disagreements
By shooting each other
There is no real invader here
We are all Irish in all our
Different kinds of ways
We must not, now or ever in the future
Show anything to each other
Except tolerance, forbearance
And neighbourly love

Because of our tradition everyone here
Knows who he is and what
God expects him to do