My song for you this evening is not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of this troubled Northern land
But lately I’ve been thinking and it just won’t leave my mind
To tell you about two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

Alan Bell from Benagh, he lived just across the fields
A great man for the music and the dancing and the reels
O’Malley came from South Armagh to court young Alice fair
And we’d often meet on the Ryan Road and the laughter filled the air.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

Though Alan he was Protestant, and Seán was Catholic born
It never made a difference for the friendship it was strong
And sometimes in the evenings when we heard the sound of drums
We said “It won’t divide us, we will always be the one.”

For the ground our fathers plowed on, the soil it is the same
And the places where we say our prayers have just got different names
We talked about the friends who died and we hoped there’d be no more
It’s little then we realized the tragedy in store.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

It was on a Sunday morning when the awful news came round
Another killing has been done just outside Newry town
We knew that Alan danced up there, we knew he liked the band
But when we heard that he was dead, we just could not understand.

We gathered at the graveside on that cold and rainy day
And the minister he closed his eyes and he prayed for no revenge
And all the ones who knew him from along the Ryan Road
They bowed their heads and said a prayer for the resting of his soul.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

Well, fear it filled the countryside, there was fear in every home
When the car of death came prowling round the lonely Ryan Road
A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score
Oh Christ, it’s young O’Malley that they’ve taken from the door.

“Alan was my friend!” he cried, he begged them with his fears
But centuries of hatred have ears that cannot hear
An eye for an eye, was all that filled their mind
And another eye for another eye, till everyone is blind.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

Now my song for you this evening is not to make you sad
Nor for adding to the sorrows of this troubled Northern land
But lately I’ve been thinking and it just won’t leave my mind
To tell you about two friends one time who were both good friends of mine.

I don’t know where the moral is, or where the song should end
But I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends
And those who give the orders are not the ones to die
It’s Bell, and O’Malley, and the likes of you and I.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

There were roses, roses, there were roses
And the tears of the people ran together.

--Tommy Sands