The Coffin Ships

Young hearts born with grief
 Shall pay the penalty of truth
 A season of stolen youth
 Shall teach old hearts to break 

It feels like I've been here before
 Here to where the animals lay down to die
 So we stood alone on a distant store
 Our broken spirits in rags and tatters 

Nerve and muscle, heart and brains
 Lost to Ireland, lost in vain
 Pause and you can almost hear
 The sounds echo down through the ages
 The creak of the burial cart
 Here in humiliation and sorrow
 Not mixed with indignation
 One is driven to exclaim
 Oh god, that bread should be so dear
 And human flesh so cheap* 

Young hearts are born with such grief
 We have paid the penalty of truth
 A season of our stolen youth
 Shall teach our hearts to break