Song for a Glasgow University chaplain

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
A Chaplain would ban Athenry from every football ground;
Of Irish times no more we'll sing, and love for her must die,
For we must respect his hatred of the Fields of Athenry.

O I met with Stuart MacQuarrie, and he shook his fist and said:
“I will not raise a Christian prayer for Irish starved of bread,
“I will not hear them remembered; their strife’s of no account,
“For the gods I follow-follow are the Rangers and the Crown.”

Is it such a crime to sing of times when love was lost and torn?
Can you only hear of famine when you send the Irish home?
And at Glasgow University, how little they have learned,
For death united Christians as they prayed and as they yearned.

When a law can banish lost love’s pain or hungry children’s tears,
And when lies change our history or memories of the years
Then my own voice will silenced, a vow I’ll keep until I die,
But 'till then I’ll sing of Celtic and the Fields of Athenry.

• James MacMillan: The Fields of Athenry is a song of love, not hate
• Phil Mac Giolla Bhain: Scottish clergyman attacks Irish love song as “racist”
• Herald Letters: Fields of Athenry is just an Irish ballad
• Glasgow University: Protestant trust stirs sectarian debate
• Pete St John: The Fields of Athenry
  
  
  
  
  

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