The Island is a song by Paul Brady (pictured), a Northern Ireland musician and songwriter. Brady was born to a Catholic family in Strabane, County Tyrone. Both his parents were teachers, his father crossing the border daily to teach music in the Republic. Brady learned piano and guitar as a child, then played in rock and roll cover bands while studying in Derry. He later joined several popular bands, most notably Irish folk group The Johnstons. Brady later went solo and became a successful singer-songwriter. A piano ballad released in 1985, The Island one of his best-known compositions. Its lyrics open with a reference to the violent civil war in Lebanon, before shifting their focus to Northern Ireland. Brady criticises the radical leaders of the Troubles (“witch-doctors praying for a mighty showdown”) and their symbolism (“raising banners”, “whitewashing slogans”, “holy flags”). More notably, he condemns their focus on the past, the “sacrifice [of] our children to feed the worn-out dreams of yesterday”.
They say the skies of Lebanon are burning
Those mighty cedars bleeding in the heat
They’re showing pictures on the television
Women and children dying in the street
And we’re still at it in our own place
Still trying to reach the future through the past
Still trying to carve tomorrow from a tombstone.But hey, don’t listen to me
This wasn’t meant to be no sad song
We’ve heard too much of that before
Right now I only want to be here with you
Till the morning dew comes falling
I want to take you to the island
And trace your footprints in the sand
And in the evening when the sun goes down
We’ll make love to the sound of the oceanThey’re raising banners over by the markets
Whitewashing slogans on the shipyard walls
Witch-doctors praying for a mighty showdown
No way our holy flag is gonna fall
Up here we sacrifice our children
To feed the worn-out dreams of yesterday
And teach them dying will lead us into glory.Now I know us plain folks don’t see all the story
And I know this peace and love’s just copping out
And I guess these young boys dying in the ditches
Is just what being free is all about
And how this twisted wreckage down on main street
Will bring us all together in the end
And we’ll go marching down the road to freedom.
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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, “The Island (Paul Brady, 1985)”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/the-island-paul-brady-1985/.