A Sniper's Promise

This powerful and passionate ballad, sung here by Black Rose founding member, Pádraig Lyons, tells of a sniper who has been commissioned to shoot a soldier. It deals with a powerful moment when faced with mortality, where human to human compassion wins in the end, and the struggle of the sniper's conscience as he grapples with thoughts of his mother's wishes to spare life. It deals with the "awful things that have got to be" in the name and cost of Irish freedom. The sniper promises his mother that he'll put away his gun once the war for freedom has been won.