8. The Winning Side

© Robbie O’Connell 1989 Slievenamon Music (BMI)

Napoleon asserted that history was a set of lies agreed upon. Likewise, justice is a set of regulations decided on by the ruling class. It is always more favorably disposed to the wealthiest and most powerful. As we can see in today’s headlines, the laws can be ignored or adjusted to suit the caprice of a different ruler and bent to his will. Justice is indeed a fickle thing.

When I first recorded this song, many people, including Odetta and Ronnie Spector thought it was about Nelson Mandela. Much to my delight, Odetta said she wanted to sing it and Ronnie Spector’s agent wanted her to record it. Unfortunately, as far as I know, neither one ever happened.

I wrote the song in 1990 to express my outrage at the treatment of Irish Nationalist Joe Doherty, who was incarcerated in a U.S. jail for over eight years, having never received a trial or been charged with any crime other than the misdemeanor of illegal entry. The Reagan administration, at the behest of the Thatcher government, wanted to extradite him to Northern Ireland for alleged involvement in the death of a British soldier. He remained in a holding cell while his lawyers filed numerous appeals on the grounds that his conduct was political not criminal and that he could not realistically receive a fair trial in the UK. After almost nine years of successful legal appeals, each one challenged by Reagan’s Justice Department in order to please Thatcher, his case reached the Supreme Court. In 1993, it ruled against him and he was sent back to jail in Northern Ireland. However, he was later released in an amnesty granted as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

We still read accounts of people all over the world who become pawns in political chess games. They are often hapless victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Given the worldwide trend towards authoritarianism, songs like this will continue to be sung for the foreseeable future.

Lyrics:

THE WINNING SIDE

© Robbie O’Connell 1989 Slievenamon Music (BMI)

Another hour has passed away,
Another slowly turning moment of another endless day.
Nothing’s changed at all, he still walks from wall to wall.
And every year that passes by
Will be one less year for living when he finally steps outside.
A heavy price to pay, to waste your life away.

CHORUS
Ah, but justice is a fickle thing.
One law for the common man, another for the king.
And don’t you know when kings can’t win the game,
It won’t be long ’til all the rules are changed.
And it’s all justified when you’re on the winning side.

The man who stands in jail today
Could well become tomorrow’s leader, that’s how history often plays.
The price it’s understood is sometimes paid in blood.
And when the battle lines are drawn,
Who can foretell who’ll be the one to play the king or play the pawn,
Or who will bear the blame in such a deadly game.

Even one day is too much time
To be held without a charge, to be condemned without a crime.
A cruel irony in the land of liberty,
For when it comes to human rights,
Why is it always in some foreign land we choose to stand and fight?
When will we realize what’s right before our eyes?