Sean Kenan

Sean Kenan

em = By Denis Kevans

Kill the harpists, chop off their hands,

Give them a niche or a coign to be flung in,

Slash the long tendons of their fluttering strings,

Find a blind bog for their body to be flung in.

CHORUS: Sean Kenan, rosin on your bow,

Slicing the tune into ribbons bright dancing,

Carving up eternity into time,

Bringing all history into the room.

Arrest Sean Kenan, and take him in the waggon,

He's the one who speaks back, he plays Irish music,

We'll teach him a lesson, we might crush his fingers,

We'll press our fingers deep into his vision.

Sean Kenan led workers down at the Big Job,

Darling Harbour he led them, they marched up the street,

No-one was singing, no-one was playing,

But symphonies mounted from the sound of their feet.

His music goes round the world, brings Ireland here,

This makes for solidarity with all people's struggles,

Five or six of us'll give him a beating,

Tread on this fingers 'n' crush the mirrors of his eyes.

You AIDEX hippies, we don't want you here,

Our lawns are green 'n' clean 'n' manicured,

Those who toiled to build these whitewashed sepulchres

Are buried deep with all of our principles.

(Sean Kenan, a famous Australian-Irish musician, was arrested at the anti-AIDEX demonstration in Canberra in November 1991. Sean was knocked unconscious, stripped naked and tortured for five hours by two undercover Australian Police. He has been charged with assaulting police and faces the Canberra Supreme Court on March 17. He has been denied legal aid and needs any support he can get. Write to Sean at GPO Box 3056, Canberra 2601. — D.K.)

From GLW issue 87