We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Donegall Road

from The Note that Lingers On by Colum Sands

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

The Donegall Road
Words & Music : Colum Sands © Elm Grove Music

The fields run right beside me all along the motorway
’Til a row of red brick houses draws a line that seems to say
You've reached the city boundary and a choice you'll have to make
At the roundabout where history turns upon which road you take.

Chorus:
On this sunny April morning, on this sunny April morning
Sunny April morning on the Donegall Road.

This road is old, this road is new, its history bitter sweet
And some of that is painted on the walls along the street
Battles won and battles lost, the entertainment scene
Van the Man is coming soon King Billy has just been.

Lecale, Benburb, Tavanagh, I pass them on the right
There's a shop with mops and brushes to challenge every mite
From Rockview street and Ebor to where Nubia meets Maldon
A red haired girl brings milk and bread towards the morning sun.

A man with time lights up his pipe takes pleasure in the chore
Across the street a woman cleans the step before her door
And Euterpe Street is musing, as a working man perspires
He's digging up Pandora Street near a box of coloured wires.

A guide dog with a tennis ball enjoys a bit of fun
A blind man walks behind it, smiling at the sun,
And Eureka there's the library, we'll return that book at last
That stopped us all from seeing any further than the past.

Near the hospital of heroes there's a tourist from Japan
She puzzles round a burnt out bar, a camera in her hand
And I'm thinking of the gift her distance brings to you and me
She's focussing her lens on something that I cannot see.

And here's tomorrow coming, children laughing hand in hand
Their skins are different colours, may they help us understand
If we're teaching culture here - it's a thing we often do
It's time that we were learning to count higher up than two.

The city centre lies ahead, my journey's near complete
The rear view mirror's giving me a last look up the street
But those faces stay before me to lighten history's load
As they look towards tomorrow on the Donegall Road.

credits

from The Note that Lingers On, released June 1, 2003
Colum Sands : vocals, guitar & mandolin
Brendan Monaghan : whistle
Ben Sands : backing vocals
Siobhan Skates : backing vocals
Karen Tweed : accordion

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Colum Sands image

Colum Sands Newry, UK

Colum Sands is a universal storyteller who draws on a long Irish tradition of poetic musicality to weave songs for the world.
Drawing on countless performances, Sands uses humour and shrewd observation to celebrate what unites rather than what separates. His latest album “Song Bridge” includes many of the songs written for his extensive environmental campaigning over the past two years. ... more

contact / help

Contact Colum Sands

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Colum Sands, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now