When I first heard 'Of This Land', I thought of Northern Ireland for obvious reasons. I come from a massive family, and have around 60 first cousins, and there had been so many deaths on both sides, from both Protestant and Catholic members that this, like 'Let me See', really struck a chord in me.
Although, when my imagination runs wild with this song I see the troubles, and I see them in Donegal. It's weird. Donegal represents the beauty, and the meloncholy is Northern Ireland. I think that this song, although not officially, but to me, states something very dull to most, and that is evolution. To me, evolution seems like a contradiction. It means more energy, more weapons, more holes in the atmosphere and more technology that we could have lived without had we not known of its' existence.
There are so many parts in this song that are really inspiring. The verse that really, really hits me is:
How soulful those words that confuses the way
How wild the mountains' stare as they guard our every day
Take for granted noble hearts in the golden age that's flown
Between us, recall on a strong road we've known
The mountains, especially in Belfast have always been there to gaurd the people during world war two. Thinking of the ratio of defenced between the UK and Northern Ireland, NI's damages and fatality were horrifically worse. A lot of my family now live around Hannahstown and Antrim, where people were evacuated to.
But then, before WW2, and certainly after, IRA, RUC and other organisations with hate towards "the other kind" had secret meetings on the hills and plotted vulgar attacks on their enemies, usually innocent people. It's really sad stuff, and although nothing like the song, I feel it has, although not as evident, the same notion in some way as 'There Were Roses'.
Precious time, time for healing the beauty of this land
This line reminds me a lot of Northern Ireland and its' troubles, and there is a poem that sort of makes you take in the importance and validity of the words above.
First they came for the communists.
I did not speak, for I was not a communist.
Then they came for the social democrats,
And I did not speak, for I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak, for I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak, for I was not a I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the so-called "un-cureables",
And I did not speak, for I was not a I wasn't a mentally ill.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
by Friedrich Martin Niemöller
It sort of preaches, along with the last line I quoted from 'Of This Land', that we all need to come together and buckle down to fix these problems.
End of terribly long post.
You never quite know when or where, but she does 
And Turlough is right, Moya will always answer a reasonable question 
