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Bread and Rosesa song of Irish labourwritten and sung by Martin Whelan |
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BREAD AND ROSES If we don’t have our dreams
Chorus: Look up the sky is burning,
He was born to organise,
Chorus With dreams in solid steel,
Chorus
Chorus © Martin Whelan
Bread and Roses is one of 12 tracks on the
new SONGS OF IRISH LABOUR CD.
Irish labour songs website: Songs of Irish Labour
Talk to me of freedom
The Red Flag:
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The imagery of bread and roses has been a
recurring theme in the history of the labour movement. It was the slogan
of women garment workers in New York in 1908 when 15,000 women marched
after the death of 128 women in a factory fire. After the slogan appeared
on the banner of textile workers during their 10 week strike in Lawrence,
Massachusetts in 1912, James Oppenheim, an IWW man, wrote a
song Bread
and Roses which has been often sung and recorded.
Martin Whelan's song, written 10 years ago and sung at gatherings
of Irish labour activists, was inspired by the reference to James Larkin
as "a man who would put a flower in a vase on a table as well as a loaf
on a plate" (Sean O'Casey)
Here is the song: Click here for the sound file of Martin Whelan singing his own song. It is an mp2 file, 3.40
minutes, 3.08 megabytes.
  with Colin Patterson and Eoin
Sweeney on sound engineering
and Helena
Sheehan producing.
E-mail to Helena Sheehan:
E-mail to Martin Whelan:
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