Men Behind The Wire

When the Special Powers Act was activated in Northern Ireland on 9 August 1971 people could be arrested and hold without trial. The detainees, mainly Catholics, were kept under awfully conditions and the interrogators used inhumane techniques.
An anti-Internment march held on 30 January 1972 ended in the massacre known as Bloody Sunday.

This song describes the circumstances under which people where arrested and include a call for solidarity with the internees.
The brutal force of the British soldiers is compared with the violent Cromwell campaign in the seventeenth century.

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Men Behind the Wire

Armoured cars and tanks and guns
Came to take away our sons
But every man must stand behind
The men behind the wire

Through the little streets of Belfast
In the dark of early morn
British soldiers came marauding
Wrecking little homes with scorn

Heedless of the crying children
Cragging fathers from their beds
Beating sons while helpless mothers
Watched the blood poor from their heads

Not for them a judge and jury
Nor indeed a trial at all
But being Irish means you´re guilty
So we´re guilty one and all

Round the world the truth will echo
Cromwell´s men are here again
England´s name again is sullied
In the eyes of honest men.

Proud we march behind our banner
Firm we´ll stand behind our men
We will have them free to help us
Build a nation once again

On the people step together
Proudly firmly on their way
Never fear never falter
Till the boys are home to stay

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