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MP attacks Dido over IRA-connected lyrics

Singer told to 'clarify her position' after quoting folk song on new album

December 8, 2008 | 11 Comments
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Dido has been criticised for using lyrics associated with the IRA by a Member Of Parliament.

The song from recent album 'Safe Trip Home', 'Let's Do The Things We Normally Do', was written by Dido and Jon Brion and contains lyrics from 'The Men Behind The Wire' by Northern Irish folk band Barleycorn.

'The Men Behind The Wire' is now associated with extreme republican movements such as Continuity IRA and the Real IRA, reports The Daily Mail.

Among the borrowed lines used in Dido's 'Let's Do The Things We Normally Do' are: "Armoured cars and tanks and guns/ Came to take away our sons/ But every man must stand behind/ The men behind the wire".

Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry and Minister For Sports, Arts And Leisure in the Belfast devolved government has criticised Dido, whose father was of Irish descent.

"Given her Irish roots, it is inconceivable that she doesn't know the background of the wording," Campbell declared. "She must know it was written about people who were murderers, arsonists and terrorists. She should clarify her position so that her fans and the wider public knows where she stands on these things."

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Comments (11)

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ed2005

Dec 8, 2008

Wooh! Dido capable of controversy? Wonders will never cease...

tomsong

Dec 8, 2008

Gregory Campbell as minister for Arts!Creative and Visionary thinking is not something one would associate with the men of the DUP.

tomsong

Dec 8, 2008

'The Men Behind The Wire' is a song written about internment introduced in Northern Ireland in 1971.'Internment refers to the arrest and detention without trial of people suspected of being members of illegal paramilitary groups. The policy of internment had been used a number of times during Northern Ireland's history. It was reintroduced on Monday 9 August 1971 and continued in use until Friday 5 December 1975. During this period a total of 1,981 people were detained; 1,874 were Catholic / Republican, while 107 were Protestant / Loyalist. The Unionist controlled Stormont Government convinced the British Government of the need, and the advantages, of introducing internment as a means of countering rising levels of paramilitary violence. The policy proved however to be a disastrous mistake. The measure was only used against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Catholic community. Although Loyalist paramilitaries had been responsible for some of the violence no Protestants were arrested (the first Protestant internees were detained on 2 February 1973). The crucial intelligence on which the success of the operation depended was flawed and many of those arrested had to be subsequently released because THEY WERE NOT INVOLVED IN ANY PARAMILTARY ACTIVITY.'http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/intern/sum.htm - a University of Ulster based resource on political and social conflict in Northern Ireland.read the history and make up your own minds

Dwainiac

Dec 8, 2008

It shows the other side of the argument, our government were murderers, arsonists and terrorists just fighting the other side of the argument. Doesnt mean they were right!

mongander

Dec 8, 2008

Do people still read/care what The Daily Mail has to say about anything?!?& what is Gregory Campbell doin listenin to Dido records?!?surely he should be more concerned with getting the institutions back up and running here rather than some middle of the road songstress's plagarism of a popular Irish song...the twat.

vibedoctor

Dec 8, 2008

Whilst I could never be described as a fan of Dido I do wonder why Gregory Campbell MP thinks she should explain her lyrics. I would like to remind him that we live in a country where freedom of speech is enshrined. She can say what she bloody well likes. She is not a democratically elected person holding a public office. Those people can also say what they think but members of the public would have a right to ask them to explain themselves if they said something that is unclear. In fact, I'd rather him explain why he was strongly in favour of the Iraq war, has never voted on the hunting issues and is against gay rights etc etc. That would be far more interesting to me than anything Dido produces.

SpaceBhoy1888

Dec 8, 2008

Lovely to see the Bigots getting in a tizzy.Well done, Dido. Don't bow to them,

Willy Plonka

Dec 8, 2008

...............she is still pissed that her only Known work to date involves an overweight American White Rapper.........the rest is shit.

mermaid78

Dec 8, 2008

I'm no Dido fan, but I've seen this on so many websites today, and find it unbelievable that the concept of free speech is now so diluted by the PC brigade that a simple memory is branded as some sort of terrorist chant. If the MP involved could have made himself listen to - or had at least mustered up the decency to read - the lyrics of the song, he would have struggled to find in the words any endorsement of IRA philosophy, let alone a call to arms. The title 'Let's Do The Things We Do Normally' is a typically Didoesque soul-searching sentimental ballad: a pen picture of father and daughter sitting together as Dido's father (of Irish descent) is dying. She wishes they could do the things they do normally. She wishes they could chat about the day, that he would sleep a little instead of trying to tie up the loose ends of their life and - crucially in the context of the present contoversy - that she could listen to him sing the 'old rebel tunes' he sings out of tune: one of which, presumably was 'The Man Behind the Wire'. It would seem that, these days, we expect not only our singers to toe an increasingly narrow line of political correctness, but their parents too - even when they've passed on. The album was written in memory of her late father (of Irish descent). These lyrics clearly link to his culture and his tradition. Unspeakable though it may be, verses like those in the Barleycorn ballad are sung loudly (and out of tune) by many Irish men and women in front rooms and pub snugs over tumblers of whiskey and great big pints of guiness: not as a glorification of murder, arson and death, but as a reminder of a time that has (thankfully)passed and an echo of a strongly felt sense of injustice that for so long pervaded (still pervades?) the heart of Irish culture. You may hate Dido's voice, or her sentimentality, but the memory she speaks of is both personal and culture-bound - any call to justify it is not just an insult to her, but to the very purpose of music. If every lyric must be explained, clarified, positioned and rationalised, then there can be no thought, feeling or expression of culture in music. Bash Dido if you want to, but in supporting this MP's statement, you support the tyranny of political correctness and the death of freedom of speech.

conor123

Dec 8, 2008

The song the men behin the wire was about innocent men who were interned at the start of the troubles by the bigoted unionist government. Meit i add, the party that gregory campbell represents were against civil rights for catholics during that period!

[Sm]Emily

Dec 10, 2008

Not that I agree with "extreme republican movements" in any way, but surely even if Dido and Jon Biron do then they are entitled to. No?.Surely freedom of political ideology is an intergral part of a democracy?