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AIDAN McANESPIE
(G. Ó. Cuinneagán)

'Twas on a Sunday evening, the sun shone in the sky
as he made his way to the Gaelic ground never thinking he was going to die
but as he crossed the checkpoint, the sound of gunfire came
The news spread through the border town ... Aidan McAnespie was slain.

Chorus:
Oh why did you do it? and not have guts to say...
to say it was an accident or even a richochet?
for like Loughall and Gibraltar, your lies are well renowned...
For ye murdered Aidan McAnespie on his way to the Gaeligh ground

For years he was hounded by the forces of the crown
as he walked to work every day, he left his native town.
The soldiers swore they'd get him, for reasons no one could say
and sure enough they murdered him in cold blood on that sunny day.

The people heard the gunfire, they came from miles around,
they saw that young man lying there, he was dying on the ground.
His flow of life was ebbing fast, the people they did their best
but that bullet wound was far too deep... it passed right through his chest.
Chorus

Aidan's life was ending, it was time for judgement day
the soldier jumped down from the tower... the coward he ran away.
God's curse on you England, for this cruel deed you've done
but God will have the final say when your judgement day will come.

To say it was an accident was the gravest crime of all
to his heart broken hearted family it was the worst that could befall.
A cross now marks the lonely spot where Aidan he was shot down
as he walked that sunny evening... on his way to Gealigh Town
Chorus

from the CAIN website:
The opening months of 1988 witnessed a souring of Anglo-Irish relations. The dec
ision in January not to prosecute eleven RUC officers as a result of the Stalker
/Sampson inquiry was followed a few days later by the London Court of Appeal's r
ejection of the appeal of the six men convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombi
ngs, despite new forensic evidence being produced. The Irish justice minister sa
id that he was 'amazed and saddened' by the decision, and when a young Catholic,
Aidan McAnespie, was killed at a British army border checkpoint in County Tyron
e in February the Irish government set up its own inquiry into the killing.
Another note to the song (copied from http://www.poiesis.org/pjo/pjo2.html):
I met Eilish McCabe, in the border village of Auchnacloy, in County Tyrone. Her
brother, Aidan McAnespie, had been killed by a British soldier's bullet from the
checkpoint which straddles the main road out of the village into the Irish repu
blic. The Army said it was an accident which took place while the soldier was cl
eaning his gun. The "accident" occurred as Mr McAnespie walked up the road towar
ds the checkpoint, a hundred metres or so away, and the rifle would have to have
been pointing out of the sniper's aperture at the time it was being cleaned for
the Army version to have been correct. But Ms McCabe had long since passed the
point, she said, of seeking justice for his killer. At a belated inquest, the on
ly witness, another British soldier, had conveniently gone AWOL and so could not
give evidence. She wanted "the truth," so the family could move on from his dea
th. WH

@Irish @rebel
filename[ MCANESPI
JF

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