Songs are an important part of a people's resistance to oppression. In times of despair songs or war tunes life our spirits.
songs commemorate fallen heroes or retell notable events. Rebel songs show that we cannot and will not be beaten. Of course
ballads on their own cannot defeat any enemy, or can they.
In the H-Blocks of Long Kesh or in the dungeons of Armagh Women's prison songs became a weapon in the prisoner's arsenal.
Ballads showed their defiance and broke the spirits of their captors. The songs were sung in Irish, sung without accompaniment
''Sean Nos'' style, tunes echoing along quiet corridors, from behind cell doors rising in solidarity. Prisoners sang political
songs, old rebel tunes and new ballads.
