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Calling Mullingar

from A Sedentary Life by Alf Whitby

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about

The song is set on a train from Dublin to the west of Ireland, where his family are rooted. It is a reflection on his Catholic Irish upbringing, and the unwavering dogmatic belief that was such a big part of his younger years, but that later became more of something to be observed than felt.

In his own words…

“Writing this song was quite cathartic for me actually. I feel like Catholicism has left a big imprint on my life and character - something of that catholic guilt will stay with me for the rest of my days, as well as the chills I get from flashbacks to confessing sins and kneeling for an altar. Odd rituals and odd notions of what kindness is and how it should be applied. The song is definitely a comment on how straight and rigid the church is in their ways - a unrelenting track, upon which a train rattles on to seemingly no end. In a lot of ways I’m glad I stepped off.”

lyrics

Hey, Padre,
The train's, delayed,
It's come from far away,
And somehow lost its' way,

The line's, so straight,
But time it meanders like falling leaves through window panes,
Oh there's a god on this train

St.Michael you're going far,
You caught me up in Mullingar
You broke your bread in mother's arms,
And now you're wanting to grow,
And Dublin feels like a lifetime ago,

Faith, the shakes,
The whiskey's in place,
Boyle it goes screaming past,
Ballymote's overcast,
Carrick is awful cold
But Padre I've nowhere left to go,
It's on to Sligo,

St.Michael you're going far,
You caught me up in Mullingar
You broke your bread in mother's arms,
And now you're wanting to grow,
And Dublin feels like a lifetime ago,

You let go of the light, on the shore,
And you gave all that you had and more,
You let go of the Atlantic shore

credits

from A Sedentary Life, released August 20, 2021

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about

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Alf Whitby Manchester, UK

Alf Whitby is the alter ego of Manchester based songwriter Andrew Keaveney. New music coming in late 2022.

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