I wrote this when the Berlin Wall came down; an event that seemed unbelievable at the time, and that filled so many people around the world with so much hope that at last the human race was beginning to get its act together. Perhaps we were a bit over-optimistic....
I used to regard this as a song that had "served its time" and that as Berlin receded into history, it would no longer be relevant. But walls come in all forms, and quite apart from the physical ones in places like Ireland and the Middle East, there are the barriers between groups and individuals that lead to so much suffering and distress. Sometimes people don’t even realise they’re building them.
(It was only after I had written this that I discovered that Runrig had a song on their Searchlight album called "Tear Down These Walls". It is similarly themed, but totally different.) |
