User:Keilana/Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land is a song by U2 from their 1988 album Rattle and Hum.

Stokes
 * in the context of the Irish Potato Famine and a failed independence attempt in 1848 by John Boyle O'Reilly, who got sent to Tasmania
 * "Van Diemen's Land" was the title of a "rebel ballad" sung at the time in Ireland, U2 title is a clear reference to this
 * Entirely written and performed by The Edge
 * electric guitar part is "sparse", Stokes calls it a "sad and moving reflection on the continuity of suffering, injustice, and violence"
 * parallels the Irish Brotherhood and the IRA
 * Bono said that it is a song about immigrants/emigrants and that is how it fits into the context of the record
 * Stokes calls it a "plaintive appeal for justice without violence"
 * recorded at the Point Theatre

Gaivett
 * the narrator of the song has been sent to Tasmania in exile because he prioritized justice for others and was willing to suffer himself
 * hopeful theme that justice will prevail at the end of the song, reflected in the line "but the day will come in this dawning age/when an honest man sees an honest wage"
 * comments on the despair that results from "wickedness of others"

Cogan
 * the song is an "homage" to John Boyle O'Reilly, sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in Tasmania and seen as a "political prisoner" by The Edge
 * the song does not have a rebellious tone

Strong
 * described as "bleakly beautiful" but an "oddity" in the band's catalog