The Castles of Ireland, also known as Another Feckin' Castle or AFC, is an original song by Sisters Erie. Written by Ryanne Flynn and Mary Flynn, arranged by the four sisters, and led by Ryanne, it closes the band's debut EP, The Coming Storm, as its fourth track.1 2

The song begins as an affectionate account of Ireland's landscape: Atlantic weather, sunlight, old roads, abbey walls, and traditions carried through the countryside. Its increasingly impatient answer to that abundance supplies the other title.1

Two versions of the beginning

The sisters' account of the song depends on which of them tells it. Mary was writing a graceful song about Ireland. Ryanne was losing patience with yet another unscheduled stop at a ruin. Mary had the slow-air opening; Ryanne had the title.1

Gael found a reel within the disagreement. Aileen developed the turn where one song abruptly becomes the other. The family eventually agreed that neither half was quite as good without its partner.1

The sincere opening is important to the contrast. It has a landscape and a musical idea of its own before the increasingly unavoidable castle appears. The interruption then makes the same countryside available to another sort of family observation.1

From landscape to family argument

The words move from weather and memory toward the recurring practical discovery that the next road has another old building beside it. A tower, a fort, a battlement, or a crumbling wall all become eligible for the refrain.1

The argument eventually reaches a distinction between a castle and a tower house. Architectural precision receives an answer, but it does not slow the chorus down.1

The lyric gives the repeated phrase enough room to become the audience's part of the joke. Its directness contrasts with the more considered language of the opening, while the sisters' shared arrangement keeps both halves within the same song.1

The Coming Storm

The Coming Storm was released in spring 2012. Each sister leads one of its four tracks. Aileen and Gael lead the two songs the family carried into the band; Mary's An Ode to Nuada and Ryanne's lead on The Castles of Ireland give the EP two originals and two very different closing moods.2

The first original turns toward a legendary king and the person beneath his losses. The second allows a sincere celebration of Ireland to become a comic family dispute. Together, they show that the sisters' original writing can accommodate restraint as readily as exuberance.1 2

Lyrics

When the wild Atlantic darkens,
Storm clouds gather over sea,
Rain comes sweeping through the valleys,
Wind runs hard 'cross field and tree.

Then the clouds break wide asunder,
Gold spills down on hill and shore,
Stone walls gleam beneath the sunlight,
And Atlantic waters roar.

Ancient roads beneath the heather,
Bearing names no tongue recalls,
Kings and saints have come and vanished,
Moss lies green on abbey walls.

There are faerie hills at twilight,
Circles best left where they lie,
Never cut the lonely hawthorn,
Wisdom left from days gone by.

Every mile reveals a wonder,
Every turn, a different view,
Something in this ancient island
Finds a way to stay with you.

For all the Celtic glory,
Wherever you may be,
It doesn't matter where you look,
There's something you will see...

And that's—

Aaaaaaa—

ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

High upon the hillside—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

Waiting by the roadway—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

One above the valley,
One beside the sea,
Turn around—what's waiting there?
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

We wandered down through County Clare,
Where cliffs fall to the sea,
Then crossed the fields of Galway,
As green as green can be.

Kerry gave us mountains,
Donegal gave ocean blue—
But every bloody road we took,
What came into view?

I think you know the answer—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

High upon the hillside—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

Waiting by the roadway—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

One above the valley,
One beside the sea,
Turn around—what's waiting there?
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

A tower by the crossroads,
Some ruins on the hill,
A crumbling wall beside the road—
Oh look, there's something still.

A manor with a battlement,
A fort from long ago—

"Technically, that's a tower house—"

"I KNOW."

It's got old stones and arrow slits,
It's grey and built to last—
You call it what you bloody like—
ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!

ANOTHER FECKIN' CASTLE!