Ninety miles form Dublin

I'm ninety miles form Dublin town

I'm in an H-Block cell

To help you understand me plight

This story now I'll tell

I'm on the blanket protest

My efforts must not fail

For I'm joined by men and women

In the Kesh and Armagh jail

It all began one morning

I was dragged to Castleragh

And though it was three years ago

It seems like yesterday

For three days kicked and beaten

I then was forced to sign

Confessions that convicted me

Of deeds that were not mine

Sentenced in a Diplock court

My protest it began

I could not wear this prison gear

I was a blanket man

I'll not accept their status

I'll not be criminalised

That's the issue in the blocks

For which we give our lives

Over there in London town

Oh how they'd laugh and sneer

If they could only make us wear

Their loathsome prison gear

Prisoners of war that's what we are

And that we must remain

The blanket protest cannot end

Till status we regain

I've been beaten round the romper room

Because I won't say 'Sir'

I've been frog marched down the landing

And dragged back by the hair

I've suffered degradation

Humility and pain

Still the spirit does not falter

British torture is in vain

I've been held in scalding water

While me back with deck scrubs was tore

I've beenscratched and cut from head to foot

Then thrown out on the floor

I've suffered mirror searches

Been probed by drunken bears

I've heard me comrades cry and scream

Then utter useless prayers

Now with the news that's coming in

Our protest must not fail

For now we're joined by thirty girls

In Armagh's women's jail

So pay attention Irishmen

And Irish women too

And show the Free State rulers that

Their silence will not do

Though it's ninety miles from Dublin town

It seems so far away

There's more attention to our plight

In the USA

Now you've heard the story

Of this filthy living hell

Remember ninety miles away

I'm still in an H-Block cell

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