Finn Amadam: (The Greatest Man I Never Met.)
The lyrics/poetry written here, are based on the short writings of Finn Amadam. During his all to short life Finn was many of things, an artist, a poet, a drug addict, a socialist, a soldier for the Irish Republican cause, a brother to his twin sister. To me though Finn was an inspiration to me. in my writings and in my music. I was already a Socialist and a supporter of the Irish Republican cause.
I first met Finn in the late 1990's, through a chat forum called "Paltalk" where I would host a video and chat room called "Voices Of Resistance." We would talk mostly about politics but the show would also cover historical and relevant current affairs.
Often we would pass on messages from families to "estranged" members of those. Some although not all were known as the OTR's or to the uninitiated The On The Run's they were members or supporters what the British government described as "Terrorist" Organizations whilst not everyone was, they might just have been family members who had been accused of something even though they were never tried. In some cases you just had to be a Catholic or even just a Socialist . So back to Finn he taught me a lot more about the Irish Republican Socialist movement, than I could ever have read about.
We had conversations about the Catholic Church and how they had hands in all sorts of things (which were later proven in courts) This lead me to write songs like "The Christian Brothers" (they abused children in their care) and "The Sisters Of Mercy" and "The Magdelane Sisters who did the same thing to women and girls in their "Care". They ran workhouses right up until 1996 whilst the rest of the UK saw closures of Workhouses in 1930. His influence on me still many years after his untimely death, can not be understated. Finn died from Pancreatic Cancer, but the heavy use of drugs to kill the pain probably hastened that end. When the use of prescription medications failed to mask or kill the pain. Finn resorted "Street Drugs" this was to become a serious addiction for him.
I saw some of his artwork which in my honest opinion should have been much more widely exposed to the general public. I was surprised to learn just the other day, as I was going through the myriad of poems by Finn that he had actually written one about me. It is entitled "Ole Kenn's Song". He talked about my singing and also I note my love for a wee dram. I wish he had told me about it while he was still alive as I could have debated some of the content with him.
Finn would ask me to record and play songs for him. He especially like my version of "The Loughall Ambush" as it was a song close to his heart. One of the 8 members of the Provisional Irish Republican Amy, who had been ambushed and executed by the S.A.S, on that sad day in 1987 had been a best man at Finn's wedding.
He also had me record a poem called "The Day My Father Died" which told of the sad day when Finn and his twin sister had seen their father beaten to death by a Loyalist mob. It was this exact moment that shaped their lives. There were of course many more Republican tunes that Finn asked me and my band "1916" to record for him. Finn was not always an easy man to get along with he was unequivocal in his views and would never back down. As such when someone else had the same depth of belief that was in opposition to Finns then sparks could fly. Consequently Finn and I would argue, sometime over the smallest of things. At the end of the night though he would always say goodnight, even is it were after a pause of several hours.
So that was Finn. Shortly before his death he sent me a file containing most of his writings. It would take me many years to separate them out into individual poems. In this book which is a partner to the 28 albums of songs based around those writings.
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