They Are The Roses - Kathy Mattea

A song for you this evening, and it’s not to make you sad

Or for adding to the sorrow of a troubled Northern land

But lately I’ve been thinking, and it just won’t leave my mind

I’ll tell you now of two good friends.

They were both good friends of

Mine

Isaac Scott from Derry, he lived just across the fields

A great man for the music and the dancing and the reels

MacDonald came from South Armagh to court young Agnes fair

It was then we’d meet on Ryan Road, and laughter filled the air

Now, Isaac, he was Protestant and Sean was Catholic born

But it never made a difference, for their friendship it was strong

And sometimes in the evening when we heard the sound of drums

We said «War won’t divide us, we will always be as one

For the land our fathers plow in, the soil it is the same

And the places where we say our prayers have just got different

Names.»

We talked about our friends who’d died, we hoped there’d be no more

It was little then we realized the tragedy in store

There were roses, roses, there were roses

And the tears of the people ran together

It was on a Sunday morning when the awful news came around

There’d been another killing outside of Caplan town

We knew that Isaac danced up there, we knew he liked the band

We heard that he was dead, and we just could not understand

We gathered at his graveside on a cold and rainy day

The minister just closed his eyes, and for no revenge he prayed

And those of us who knew him from along the Ryan Road

Just bowed our heads and said a prayer for the resting of his soul

There were roses, roses, there were roses

And the tears of the people ran together

Now fear it filled the countryside, and fear filled every home

And late one night, a car came prowling round the Ryan Road

A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score

Oh Christ, it’s young MacDonald that they’ve taken from the door

«Isaac was my friend!»

he cried, he begged them with his fear

But centuries of hatred have ears that cannot hear

«An eye for an eye» was all that filled their minds

And another eye for another eye, til everyone is blind

There were roses, roses, there were roses

And the tears of the people ran together

Now I don’t know where the moral is, or how this song should end

But I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends

And the men who give the orders, well, they’re not the ones who die

It’s Scott and MacDonald and the likes of you and I

There were roses, roses, there were roses

And the tears of the people ran together