Fact: Imelda May is a well-known Irish singer who also writes spoken word poetry. She started performing publicly and touring at the age of 16. She was prevented from at ending some of her own performances as she was too young to get into the venues!
‘You Don’t Get to be Racist and Irish’ BY IMELDA MAY
This
You don’t get to be racist and Irish You don’t get to be proud of your heritage, plights and fi ghts for freedom While kneeling on the neck of another You’re not entitled to sing songs of heroes and martyrs Mothers and fathers who cried as they starved in the famine Or of brave-hearted, soft-spoken poets and artists Lined up in a yard, blindfolded and bound While waiting for Godot, for point blank to sound We emigrated, we immigrated, we took refuge And so cannot refuse when it’s our time to return the favour Lands stolen, spirits broken, bodies crushed and swollen Unholy tokens of Christ nailed to a tree you hang around your neck Like the noose of the free Our colour pasty, our accents thick Hands like shovels from mortar and brick-laying every foundation of the cities you stand upon Our sufferance seeps from every stone your opportunities arise from Outstanding on the shoulders of your forefathers and foremothers who bore your mother’s mother Our music is for the righteous, our joys are earned and well-deserved And serve to remind us to remember More blacks, more dogs, more Irish Still labelled Leprechauns, Micks, Paddys, Louts We’re shouting to tell you our land, our laws are progressively out there We’re in a chrysalis state of emerging Into a new and more beautiful Éire forty shades better Unanimous in our rainbow vote We’ve found our stereotypical pot of gold and my God it’s good So join us ’Cause you don’t get to be racist and Irish.
