* Song: * Album: * Interpretation: * Notes: Mary watches everything The acoustic motorbike This song is about the Irish abortion legislation. It was inspired by the following case: In 1992, again under Article 40.3.3, the High Court granted an injunction to stop a pregnant 14-year-old girl from travelling to England for an abortion (the X case). Two weeks later, the Supreme Court overturned this injunction, and ruled that where the rights to life of the woman and the unborn are in conflict, the right to life of the woman must prevail; ie where there is a "real and substantial risk to the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother, which can only be avoided by the termination of her pregnancy, such termination is permissible." Here, because X had threatened to commit suicide if her pregnancy continued, such a risk existed, so she had a right to an abortion. However, if such a risk did not exist, then a pregnant woman could be restrained from travelling abroad.

Mary watches everything

Images of innocence...
Comin' through the prison walls
One fine day in England
Justice calls

Mary watches everything 
In her living room, alone
Television's flickering
With the volume down

Chorus:
Everything is changing 
In the outside world
Thre are signs of re-arranging 
Softer spoken words
Here men talk in whispers
Of a woman or a girl
Things are only changing
In the outside world

Images of people
Turning power on its head
They wak across that danger zone
So many died or fled
Mary watches everything 
In her living room, alone
Television's flickering
With the volume down

Chorus

Mary watches everything
She never heeds the bell
When the genuine and the curious ones
Come and ask if she is well
They talk and talk and hang around like everyday
Mary stays inside
Voices fade away

Chorus