I salute at the threshold of the North Sea of my mind And I nod to the boredom that drove me here to face the tide And I swim, I swim, oh swim Dip a toe in the ocean, oh how it hardens and it numbs The rest of me is a version of man built to collapse in crumbs And if I hadn’t come now to the coast to disappear I may have died in a landslide of rocks and hopes and fears So I swim until you can’t see land Swim until you can’t see land Swim until you can’t see land Are you a man? Are you a bag of sand?

Up to my knees now, do I wade, do I dive? The sea has seen my like before, though it’s my first and perhaps last time Let’s call me a baptist, call this a drowning of the past She is there on the shoreline throwing stones at my back So I swim until you can’t see land Swim until you can’t see land Swim until you can’t see land Are you a man? Are you a bag of sand?

And the water is taller than me And the land is a marker line All I have is a body adrift in water, salt and sky

punk scene in Ireland started up the north late 70s with bands like the Undertones, and Stuff Little Fingers In the 90s you’d have Ash (alt rock) and Therapy? (punk/metal crossover) The only current punkish one I can think now are Fontaines DC and Murder Capital