Ciaran Cummings

 

by Michael P. Thompson, 9 July, 2001

Young Ciaran Cummings was only nineteen
Well-loved by his neighbors and his mother, Kathleen
When red-handed Orangemen on the Fourth of July
Decided that young Ciaran Cummings must die

They killed Constable O'Reilly in quiet Portadown
They shot Brian Service to death in Belfast town
They blew up pubs and churches and untouched by the law
They killed Rosemary Nelson in County Armagh

Ciaran cheered on the proud Celtic football team
Wearing his jersey with hoops white and green
Now his mates wear the same as through Antrim they bear
Ciaran's coffin to Belmont to put to rest there

Bishop Walsh remembers the life Ciaran led
As the Requiem Mass in St. Joseph's is said
Catholic and Protestant, Antrim neighbors hold love
For the family who now sends Ciaran above

"A statistic" Bishop Walsh says Ciaran will be
To all but his close friends and sad family
In a few days we'll not remember his name
And life will move on, much to our shame

Father Murray will help his family to heal
The wounds they and Ciaran's friends currently feel
Only those few and Christ, the great God of love
Will remember this precious one who now dwells above

Well if all that is true, then ashamed we should be
Saddened by how quickly life becomes history
And if we soon forget this young Antrim son
Then surely the terrorists on both sides have won

Young Ciaran Cummings was only nineteen
Well-loved by his neighbors and his mother, Kathleen
When red-handed Orangemen on the Fourth of July
Decided that young Ciaran Cummings must die

If the song doesn't play automatically, try clicking the play button here.

I recorded it with a small headset mic on my computer, and I had to downsample it quite a bit to keep the file size reasonable, so the quality isn't that great, but you can hear the tune.

Click here to play the song in mp3 if you've got a player.. (Or download it. Mac users, click and hold on the link, PC users, right click, then select Save to Disk or Download link, from the popup menu.) Caution, it's a pretty big file (2.96 MB).

 


This page last updated 21-Mar-2006