Going South – The 4 of Us

‘Going South’ is the current single from ‘Sugar Island’ the lastest long player from the 4 of Us.

A clever tale of nostalgia told through the eyes of innocence, the song describes the long gone hassle of crossing the Irish Border from North to South in a smoke filled car.

As the tale unfolds, the listener is transported to a vivid summer scene that anyone over 40 years of age will be familiar with. Guard towers, queues of cars and jittery British soldiers watching suspiciously from the surrounding fields and mountains.

On a journey going south in the height of the summer. We are leaving the parades, pipers, and drummers as the radio plays in the summer time. I want to sing along but I just know the first line.

Unlike the snake oil salesmen, who masquerading as politicians, sold Brexit to the United Kingdom, the Murphy Brothers AKA The 4 of Us like many here who grew up with it are aware of what an armed divisive border can do to a country.

The people of the North of Ireland overwhelming rejected Brexit. Not surprising when you realise – rose tinted as it may be presented here – a country divided by an armed border is not a good thing for anyone.

Cleverly, what the band has done here is to keep it confined to the past while recording for posterity the less pleasant aspect of a trip that many now take granted.

The 4 of Us are currently on tour across all of Ireland.