Troubles in mind

In February 1972, Paul McCartney’s much vaunted new band, Wings, released their debut single. Musically it had the bright tunefulness we’d expect of McCartney. But lyrically it not only raised eyebrows but a huge amount of controversy and even outrage. The BBC not only refused to play it, but also refused to even name it on air; the venerable Alan Freeman had to refer to it as ‘a record by the group Wings’.



The song in this week's episode hasn't been chosen so much for the message it conveys, or to be contentious, but because of the shock it caused and what it says about a dark period in our history. These were troubled times, so troubled that even the supposedly cuddly Beatle would chose to release such a polemical first single. For many people this record, released as a response to the Bloody Sunday killings, was perhaps the first time they’d paused to think a little more deeply about The Troubles… troubles which had started across the Irish sea, but which soon arrived on the British mainland.



That song was called 'Give Ireland Back To The Irish', a bluntly simple title about a deeply complex historical situation.