The troubles erupted in Belfast ,
It was August 1968 ,
I left like thousands of other people and said good bye at my front gate .
Good bye to the slaughter house .
Bloodbath fare thee well .
My heart now torn apart
It felt like I'd been evicted from life but still not able to depart.
Neither a soldier or terrorist ,
I had tasted victory and defeat .
Many of my friends were being murdered .
I was being shot at in the street .
The troubles had escalated in Belfast
It was 1969 .
The British Army arrived in Belfast
Some say , just in the nick of time .
I felt like millions of others people
helpless to institute a change .
So I returned back home to Belfast ,
But I was the one who was so strange .
I’ve been gone so long now that my friends and relations have forgotten me .
In the time I’d been away with all my homesick heartaches across the sea .
A lot had happened to Belfast ,
It was imprisoned and no longer free .
Both Catholic and Protestants had been interned ,
Nobody heard their plea .
In the village where I grew up ,
It had been surrounded by enemies .
So I had to leave my home again ,
Back in the mid nineteen seventies .
It was impossible to live with injustice .
I couldn’t live with hate .
So goodbye again to the bloodbath .
Fare thee well to the slaughter house gate .
I saw all that the TV had exposed and Belfast was in agony .
I watched far away in exile but never once did I ever feel free .
I went back a few more times , its been over thirty five
years since I left .
Each time I returned I saw Belfast burned
with tragedies of life and death .
Its now August 2007 and the British Army left .
I wonder if like me in leaving there ,they’ll feel a little bit bereft .
I hope that when the soldiers go back home to England
they can find some peace ,
Because I know what I’ve suffered ,
And I thank God Belfast has been released .
Belfast is free to be part of a link but has no more chains of sorrow .
Belfast has put its dark history behind and
Looked at a bright tomorrow .
By Paul Mc Cann
