Gates Of Hell

Pipers play laments in the distance

These days you seem to hear them everywhere

A sea of blue stands to attention

The mother walks down the chapel stairs

Through her crying eyes she watches her Paddy

As the shoulders carry her son away

Neighbours and friends just shake their heads

Coz they know there's nothing you can say

Folks figure Paddy, he's gone up into heaven

Coz he went missing at the gates of hell

Now the sun's setting down on the Rockaway ground

And when it's coming back just no one can tell

I met him in the canyon of heroes

When Lord Stanley finally came down Broadway

He was singing and dancing and drinking and laughing

Celebrating until the next day

Now there's a whole new canyon of heroes

Full of people who seem like me and you

But it's no ordinary guy who steps into the tide

And then tells you, "It's just what I do"

I walk into the autumn morning

Trying to make some sense of it at all

Then a fighter jet flies straight right over my head