[Track Info] [The Lyrics] [Explanation]
Track 5 from the album "Seasons End" - Album Version: 4:27
Lyrics by Steve Hogarth
Published by Charisma Music Pub. Co. Ltd./ Rondor Music (Ldn) Ltd.
I was out in the cold of a north London street
A cog in the hurrying world
Above the walls and the gate police
I caught a glimpse of a Holloway girl
She was reachin' out of a window
From a space just a few inches wide
'Till the hand of justice pulled her back inside
One day, freedom will unlock your door
So hold on, believe on.
Be who you were before
One day, freedom will unlock your door
I know how hard it can be to wait
For proof you were right all along
Self destruction is easy for you
We know what you're capable of
But like a needle in a haystack
The truth gets so disguised
In a kingdom built on Madness and on lies
One day, freedom will unlock your door
So hold on, Believe on.
Be who you were before
In deepest darkness, the faintest light looks bright
So hold on, hold on
It's gonna be alright
alright
You're lookin' up at a mountain
Between you and the outside
But there isn't a mountain in this whole world
Hasn't been climbed
One day, freedom will unlock your door
So hold on, Believe on.
Be who you were before
In deepest darkness, the faintest light looks bright
So hold on, hold on
It's gonna be alright
One day, freedom
One day, freedom
One day, freedom will unlock your door
Copyright © 1997 Fraser Marshall, Matthew Anderson & Bert ter
Steege.
Dec (‘Journeyman’) said: Holloway prison is a maximum security, female only, penitentiary about 1/4 Mile out of Holloway Town on the Camden Road. It is a prison for the most dangerous women in England.(Myra Hindley, and Rose West, Britains most imfamous murderesses are both in Holloway; - Ed)
The Holloway Girl is Judith Ward, and her story is not unlike the stories of the Guildford Four (as seen in Neil Jordan's movie, In The Name Of The Father" - Ed) or the Birmingham Six, and is a reflection of the evils and inadequacies of the British legal system.
Whenever there is a terrorist act perpetuated in Britain (usually due to IRA activity), the public, understandably, clamour for retribution and swift justice. In their zeal to keep the public satiated, the English legal system has been responsible for arresting innocent people who vaguely fit the profile, eliciting under severe duress, illegal confessions and subsequently incarcerating these poor unfortunates whose only crimes may be being in the location at the time of the bombing and/or being Irish Catholic.
The Holloway Girl, Judith Ward, was just such a case, though perhaps her case was not as cut and dried a case of the Guildford and Birmingham cases. (both of which were later overturned in the court of appeal as being unreliable convictions - Ed)
Judith Ward was mentally ill and suffered delusions. When a bus was blown up by the IRA, killing, I think, around 40 people, Judith Ward stepped forward and confessed. The public wanted blood and retribution, Judith had confessed, game over. . . What was subsequently revealed was that the prosecution had evidence of her Mental illness, and in fact had irrefutable proof that she could not possibly have anything to do with the bombing. But, to set the public's mind at ease that justice, swift and sharp, was being delivered, the trial found Ward guilty as charged and sentenced to Holloway for Life or longer. (Life imprisonment in the UK is not for life - I believe its about thirty years or something -Ed)
When the facts came to light, (some fifteen year later I believe?) Judith Ward was released from H. M. Prison Holloway without so much as an apology.
The numerical data in this piece may be inaccurate (number of people killed, length of stay in Holloway) and I will gladly stand corrected. for anybody really interested in the facts of the case, any standard English criminal law text will have the details and references.
Dave McMann added: Apart from famous violent criminals there, the majority of women are locked away there for being poor. I.e.: can't pay their TV license, petty shop lifting to feed their kids. Holloway is a very bad place, only a few months ago, the prison inspector cut his visit short and walked out in disgust. (For the benefit of those who read this in years to come Dave is talking about an incident in 1996! - Ed)
Unfortunately, in Britain, a woman is more likely to be sent to prison for a long time for a petty crime than a man.
‘Holloway’
The eastern part of the Camden borough of north London.
Sources
Last Modified: 27 Jul 2000