The Brandos - The Triangle Fire lyrics

In Nineteen Hundred-Nine, from Donegal's shore

I sailed to old New York town

In the harbor Lady Liberty stands

I don't believe I'll again see Dear Ould Ireland

But the promise in these city streets is so grand

And it's there I'd wed my dear, sweet lass

A bricklayer's spade, my trade to be

And she slaved at the Triangle Shirt Factory

My God! - the dreadful conditions there

They toiled through dim light and stifling air

And gruelling hours the seamstress gave

To the industrial captains for a trifling wage

Though two years passed, we saw no change

And I grieved for my love's dark misery

Then word ran through the New York streets

There's a fire at the Triangle Shirt Factory

Twas only moments and the factory surrendered to flame

And the fire escapes soon gave way

In the windows huddled girls appeard

Flames licked at their backs, their faces gripped with fear

My God! - don't jump! came the firemen's roar

Whose ladders failed to reach the top floors

A last, shared glance and final embrace

They leaped to their tragic and senseless fate

Now I scream at the sky

There's got to be a reason why

Bewildered and grieved, I'm tangled and mired

My love is gone - oh the Triangle Fire

The world is so cold, desperate and dire

I've lost everything in the Triangle Fire

There was no reason, there was no rhyme, and now law

To save us from this crime at all

The owner's trial did reveal

That the girls were locked in - the doors had all been sealed

My God! - they've gone free! came our hopeless cry

The bossed won with their lawyers and lies

The Power and Greed again prevailed

And we were left to our sorrow, to our despair

I fear the future, I can envision the time

When our cityscape will touch the sky

Will men of Faith, of Wealth and Power

Spare their people a fate like the Triangle Fire?

My God! - forgive me! these men will cry

In Their final hour as they lay dying

And their victim's ghosts close in around

God alone may forgive their indifference now