Streets of Sorrow / Birmingham Six (The Pogues, 1988)

Streets of Sorrow / Birmingham Six is performed by Celtic folk-punk band The Pogues. It was released in 1988, appearing on the album “If I Should Fall from Grace with God”. As its title implies, Streets of Sorrow / Birmingham Six is an amalgam of two different songs, each different in style and approach. The first half, penned by mandolinist Terry Woods, is a gentle acoustic ballad of three verses. Woods’ lyrics are sorrowful and reflective, mourning the “young men slain” in the Troubles and . The second part, written by Pogues lead singer Shane McGowan, is more upbeat and raucous, engaging the full band. McGowan’s lyrics are angrier and much more political. They focus on the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, two groups of Northern Irelanders wrongfully imprisoned for acts of terrorism. McGowan takes aim at the English police, the legal system and anti-Irish sentiment in Britain. The last verse also refers to the Loughgall ambush, where eight Provisional IRA were ambushed and killed by a platoon of British Special Air Service (SAS) commandos.

Oh farewell you streets of sorrow
And farewell you streets of pain
I’ll not return to feel more sorrow
Nor to see more young men slain

Through the last six years I’ve lived through terror
And in the darkened streets, the pain
Oh how I long to find some solace
In my mind I curse the strain

So farewell you streets of sorrow
And farewell you streets of pain
No I’ll not return to feel more sorrow
Nor to see more young men slain

There were six men in Birmingham, in Guildford there’s four
That were picked up and tortured and framed by the law
And the filth got promotion but they’re still doing time
For being Irish in the wrong place and at the wrong time

In Ireland they’ll put you away in the Maze
In England they’ll keep you for seven long days
God help you if ever you’re caught on these shores
The coppers need someone and they walk through that door

You’ll be counting years – first five, then ten
Growing old in a lonely hell
Round the yard and the stinking cell
From wall to wall and back again

A curse on the judges, the coppers and screws
Who tortured the innocent, wrongly accused
For the price of promotion and justice to sell
May the judged be their judges when they rot down in hell

You’ll be counting years – first five, then ten
Growing old in a lonely hell
Round the yard and the lousy cell
From wall to wall and back again

May the whores of the empire lie awake in their beds
And sweat as they count out the sins in their heads
While over in Ireland eight more men lie dead
Kicked down and shot in the back of the head

You’ll be counting years – first five, then ten
Growing old in a freezing hell
Round the yard and the lousy cell
From wall to wall and back again


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This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation:
J. Llewellyn and S. Thompson, “Streets of Sorrow / Birmingham Six (The Pogues 1988)”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/streets-of-sorrow-birmingham-six-1988/.