While talking to a patient about the hyppocracy of some Christians she came out with the phrase “Christianity a la Carte” which apparently is quite well known but I had never heard of it. This inspired a new song where I dig in to some old beliefs that I had at school ie. that Jesus was a socialist. I combined these two themes into “Jesus a la Carte”. I really like it - even if I say so myself.

After coming back from the Tanglewood Festival on Saturday I fell asleep at 6 o’clock, woke up at half nine. We had been celebrating Terry and Una’s new baby the night before, so I was wrecked. However, wakening at 9:30 I got the inspiration for a new song called "Two Wrongs Don’t Make It Right". It was finished by 11:15 and got it’s first public airing in the Bridge Bar on Sunday when I went down to have a few celebratory pints as I’ve just finished recording my second album. I think the song is a good one, using an old philosophy to highlight a breakup situation. We will find out in the future if I’m deluded. By the way, I have recorded 16 tracks with the idea of pressing 12, but I might just press all 16.

On Tuesday the 26th of July I got ready to go to Fiddler`s Green but an idea for a song had been haunting me for a few weeks. The idea combines the facts that fuel for energy is getting more expensive and difficult to extract while we are wasting energy. One such waste I believe is all that man power spent on marching in Northern Ireland especially. I had the notion that if we could build a big wheel that marchers could march inside to drive a turbine then we could create a lot of green energy! Got the picture? - The song is called “When Orange men go green” It is sang to the tune of “The Rising of the Moon”. The song landed on me that Tuesday evening over a 2 hour period. I hope you get to hear it and like it, it will be on my third album.

About 8 years ago I read the story of Jimmy Crozier (from the Shankill Rd, Belfast) who was the youngest soldier to be executed in the 1st World War. He was only a lad - 15 years old who lied about his age to get into the army. He was signed up by his namesake Col. Frank Crozier (no relation) who later gave the order to execute him. He suffered "shellshock", which was not recognised as a medical problem but was seen to be cowardice. Many soldiers suffered SS but if you were Irish - North or South, Protestant or Catholic, Loyalist or Republican - you were 3 times more likely to be executed. Barbarically it was member of Jimmy’s own regiment (as always the case) who were chosen to shoot him in order to try to eliminate cowardice.
This story haunted me for years and I just couldn't get the song but one night about 2 weeks ago, after a feed of főzelék (a Hungarian dish), I had another go and it came. I hope you like it.