different country same shit...warning contains traces of Declan ranting.

Watched 4 Gardaí (Irish Cops) hassle 2 Romanian women selling Thee Big Issue on Grafton st. Threatening to "Send them back to Romania" on the spot," "I don't speak Romanian, why would i speak your poxy language" and forcing them to lift their skirts to search them in front of the busiest street in Dublin. When one of the women Complained about being cold (it was bitter) she got the reply "how could you be cold with so many fucking clothes on". So i confronted the Gardaí and asked them if they would talk like that to me. I told them that i had got the same thing from the police in England in the 80's for being Irish and that they should be ashamed of themselves.
It took everything inside me to remain civil and not embarrass the "big men" with every ounce of unleashed physical rage within me. For what it was worth (not a lot) i took their numbers and went to Pearse st to lodge a complaint. I had to laugh as they have huge posters on the wall outlining their policing. The first 3 articles were all about treating Ireland's new people with respect for their cultures and respect for their beliefs etc. Above it was a huge amnesty poster with the Un's human right charter.
I know my complaint will have gone in the bin but maybe they will think about it before extolling their collective racist power trip bullshit on someone. As I walked away from the confrontation with the gardai one of the flower seller women on grafton st (first left off grafton st heading away from Trinity) started goin on about how they were all a pack of thieving bastard knacker scum. I just stared at her in disappointment and walked off.

Why am i relating all this to you? Because the minister for justice (yes, i laugh every time I see his title) Michael McDowell, has just announced he wants to open detention centres for refugees in Ireland. Where they will be held until they are processed. This was one of the main reasons i had to get out of Australia, detention centres, families, men, women, children held in detention centres in the middle of the desert for up to 3 years. I won't go on about them, you can google them. It makes for interesting reading. Australia's treatment of refugees makes my blood boil. Indefinite detainment. The breaching of UN charters they signed up for. Fuck it...I can barely type this.

So I returned home to Ireland where i thought things might be different...there are 88 million of Irish descent around the world. We were mass refugees. I thought a country with people that had been subjected to all the racism " no Irish , no Blacks, no Dogs" would have a greater understanding and would reject this hate and paranoia.

Well i have nowhere to run now. I will fight and shout...will it make any difference? I don't fucking know but it's better than boiling my blood in rage sitting on my arse.

Freezing

Snow is on the way methinks. It's bizarre, every time I start to write a new album it snows. I don't know why but i write better in the cold. I think that's the real reason there are so many writers and musicians in Ireland. We are not a nation of poets we are just very cold and it pisses rain all the time so we write. That and the fact that Irish/hiberno English sounds quirky. It is a translation of Irish where lots of sentences are in the form of questions and the grammar and sentence construction is back to front. I like when the English language is bastardised and mutates. I like pigeon English. Sozaboy...

Just finished reading Sebastian Barry's " A Long way home". I can see why it was shortlisted. Reading the unabridged Diary of Anne Frank at moment. Last night I watched "Soy Cuba" I am Cuba. Some of the most awesome camera work i have ever seen. It has just been re released.

Germany Netherlands November 06

Got of the plane…Jesus, after flying Ryanair for so long aer lingus felt like a 5 star treatment. They even give you seat numbers. There was no one on the plane so I had a whole row to meself as did my wonderful cellist and touring compadre Mary Barnecutt aka MC Snorepunch. So we slept. Little things like that are gold on tour. You seek out pockets of sleep wherever you can and fresh vegetables or anything that isn't deep fried is shangrila. Anyway , Marion picked us up and we hotfooted it to the beautiful City of Nurenberg, I should have slept when i got to the hotel or worked or practiced but I was in Nurenberg so I hit the pavement. Checked out the national German museum, saw a Rembrandt and a few Durer's. Didn’t have time to see Durer's house though or the stadium where Adolf had a few friends round for tea and a pep talk. The venue was insane, it is in a giant shopping centre in a huge restaurant that they convert at night for shows. The show was billed as Africa meets Ireland (we did and it was great fun) People were seated and were of all ages and walks of life. It felt strange seeing people sit at tables. I felt like Elvis in Las Vegas ( al little bit thinner...a little bit).
I played first and it was great, you could hear a pin drop. I got talking to Magou from Senegal and he played my guitar. It was great hearing it played by a maestro. Me and Mary watched both, Magou and Maciré Sylla sextet play. It was weird they were giving it socks but there were only two people dancing. So I danced for a good while and felt great, there is no life without dancing, good food, good sex, good surf, and good music.

The next day me and Mary got on a train to the Netherlands and Played in the awesome 013 club in Tilburg. We played support to Woost a local band so there was a very big crowd. As usual there were a few clann zú fans there too. I was told before hand that Dutch crowds always talk and turn their back to you when you play and not to take it personally. After the first song everybody was silent for the whole show. Really good people. I dedicated a song to Willy Van der Meer whom had wanted to book clann zú and was booking myself earlier in the year. A unique and cool individual I only ever spoke to on the phone and never got to meet as he passed away earlier in the year. Hope the music is good where ever you are Willy. The next day Erik from Woost drove us to Nimijen where we stayed on his and his brothers houseboat. Jesus you have to pinch yourself sometimes!. What a cool city. Again it is another city with tall beautiful women riding around on bikes…a repeat motif for the tour. We had a night off so me and Mary cut class and watched the bond flick which was surprisingly ok. The next day we got to the venue called "the underpants" which is a basement squat venue under a building that used to make pants. It is now a collective café and venue run by activist volunteers. What a cool bunch of people. We ate the best vegan lasagne and salad I have ever tasted in my life. Thanks Tessa! (look at her wonderful tatoos). We played for about an hour and it was probably my favourite night so far. A good connection between meself and the crowd. We slept at another squat which was typical for Europe ie 5 star squat and a million times nicer than my hole of a flat in Dublin. Thanks to all for taking care of us and for the great breakfast and company. Mc Knickers aka Mary and I got the train again for Dortmund where we crashed at André’s place who runs Decoder records my German Label. The next morning we got up and headed to Essen where I played songs acoustic in an amazing church. Fuck that was really nice. And I didn't swear..thanks be to fuck!

Poland

Poland
I got to Poznan and was picked up by the awesome Red Bull Gang aka Marek, Bartek, and Marcin. These guys were my guides , agents translators and body guards for the entire trip and I am in their debt for such a good time. We hopped into the tiny fiat uno and sped through the streets at high speed and reversed down a one way street to the venue. This convinced me that Irish and Polish people must have come from the same tribe. I played a cool show at a really nice little venue called Kisielice. I started with a PA but got rid of it and sang and played it all acoustically. The next mornin saw the four of us, plus my guitar and gear become sardines in the Fiat uno again and drive 6 hrs to Katowice. Fucking hilarious. They dropped me at a Five star hotel they had organised for me and I spent the evening pretending I was a fucking rock star, I almost even drank a bottle of water from the mini bar. Easy Deco easy…next it’s the TV out the window, drink , drugs and before I know it I’m Billy Idol putting out a xmas fucking album. Go to the venue which was a converted theatre wondering if anybody would show up. It was full and I was wondering who the fuck they were there to see and then the guys informed me the crowd was there for my show. Deadly! It was all due to the hard work and great promotion by the red bull gang. By now I had been given my Polish tour name “Roman Kurwa (fucking) Declanski”. I like it. The show was great after I got the insane Russian girl on too much drugs to shut up cackling like a mongoose after eating a cobra laced with PCP.
Once again everyone was really nice and appreciative. I will be back! The next day the poor old Fiat Uno died so we caught a train to the awesome city that is Krakow. We played in a the old Jewish quarter, which was amazing, in a underground basement venue called Bside. A small place but it was full with really nice people. I felt really realxed and I reached a cool place in my head that happens sometimes where you are not playing music but the music is just happening out of me if that makes any sense. It always feel really special when it happens but it is exhausting afterwards. I don’t know why. I sang one bedroom apartment as an encore and the entire crowd sang along with me. It was nice doing these shows just by myself. There was nothing to hide behind at all. I didn’t have time to visit Auschwitz but I will come back just for this, I have always wanted to see and experience it and I think it deserves the respect of a sole visit rather than a side trip.
Walked around the town and had a strange incident with a body guard to some government official. Marek bundled me away and said something to the guy in polish explaining. Although he doesn't have a clue what happened either, safe to say I was a nanosecond away second from punching the guy as I didn’t know who he was and thought I was about to get jumped. Onwards. Headed for the airport and had a standoff with 3 armed soldiers doing security who wanted me to go back out and check in my guitar pedals. I told them I would miss my plane and we played about a minute of a really cool game called “ Go back outside and check these in, look I have a big gun and shaved head…No I will miss my plane” It's pretty simple. You just repeat until one side arrests you or leaves you go. I won and made it to my plane with 30s seconds to spare. All in all I had a brilliant time in Poland and I can’t wait to get back here. Thank you so much to all the fantastic people I met there. I was an honour to play for you.

Transvocale

11-11-06 Frankfurt Oder.
Flew in to Berlin and hopped in a van packed with Simphiwe Dana's band from South Africa and the wonderful Marion from Griot. We headed to Frankfurt Oder on the German polish border for a festival of the voice called Transvocale with various singers from around the world.
Go to hotel and slept for 10 mins before being woken by Julian from Griot who had bumped into a fantastic German double bass player and asked him to play with me as Kate Ellis who had to cancel at the last moment due to cello problems. So we had a quick run through of the songs in the hotel lobby an headed for the show. I played to a full room of really great people and I sang really well. It was one of the better concerts I have played this year for sure. The double bass was great. I got to meet and see some brilliant voices including Urna from Mongolia and of course Simphiwe Dana from South Africa. Hung around till everyone was done and then headed back to hotel for much overdue sleep.

The next day I woke up and cruised around Frankfurt Oder for a while which was dead. It can’t compare with the cheap prices across the border so everyone drives across the river for cigarettes and petrol. All the restaurants etc on the German side are closing up. I walked across into Poland for a while and got to speak the few words of polish I had learned from my polish friends in Dublin (good old county Poland!). So minus the swear words I could say please, thank you, how are you and good bye.

On the way back the German border guard refused to believe my passport was not a fake. I have to replace it. I actually went to passport office in Dublin months ago and got the wall of stupidity that is Irish governmental bureaucracy, They wouldn’t replace it saying it was valid and fine. So I told the guy to stick it up his arse. But I always get stopped by border police so I have to swallow my pride and pay for a replacement. Ah well I have got some funny stories to tell about Police in various countries not believing I was Irish. “But he looks Palestinian?” . Next time I’m wearing a red wig and red beard with a little green hat and I’ll tell him “ Top of the mornin to ya officer”. The hilarious bit is we were smuggling loads of crack cocaine into the country. And for any dry fuck who is reading this and actually believes that and wants to search me next time. Don’t be stupid, I wasn’t smuggling crack cocaine into your country. It was rocket launchers. (I put the rocket launchers in condoms and swallowed them).

After I was left back in I got onto a train to Poland. Had great fun with the insane conductor who spent 10 minutes convinced my Polish money was counterfeit. So I swapped a Rocket launcher for a ticket and was on my way.