CPI Archive: In the late 1990's Declan O'Rourke moved west, from his teenage home in Australia to his childhood home in Dublin. Ten year's later he moved west again, this time to his family's ancestral home in Kinvara, where career as a songwriter really began to take shape. In late 2007, he spoke with Andrew Hamilton.
"Simon rose at dawn, from a rest- less night. Watched his children sleeping and kissed his wife good- bye. Simon came out running, with his head held high. Painted green grass red, under God’s blue sky.” THERE are common traits that can reveal a nation. Often times in the past, the Irish have painted themselves as the jolly, tuneful and drunk; swilling their pints carelessly in the dark recesses of some pub in Boston or Sydney as the real world unfolds without them. It’s an old stereotype, but if there’s something that all stereotypes have in abundance, it’s endurance. Many green-blooded Irish have tried to shake this hackneyed old image, but none have succeeded in quite the same way as what we can loosely call ‘the Irish humanitarian brigade’. It started, let’s say, with Bob Geldof. Then came Mary Robinson and Bono, and now even the likes of Damien Rice are getting their bony toes and hemp slacks wet in the waters of righteousness. For Declan O’Rourke, however, the point is a little different. With the release of his long overdue second album, Big Bad Beautiful World, the Galway-based Dub has stepped confidently up to the plate with a collection of songs that reach right for the throat. And yes, there in the middle of the love songs and heart-felt tracks lies your classic protest song. In ‘One Day In A War’, O’Rourke has written a more subtle song of dissent. He’s not trying to change the world; he just wants to let you know how he feels. “It was inspired by a few things. One was all the crap that’s been go- ing on in the world — not just over the last few years; it’s been going on for ages. It was inspired directly from a quote from Ghandi. I don’t remember where I heard it but he said, ‘There are many causes that I would die for but none that I would kill for’," he said.
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