The Council Chamber Lyrics

Willy Russell The Council Chamber

[spoken]
[MRS JOHNSTONE]
Mickey! Mickey! Mickey, no! Don't shoot Eddie! Please! He's your brother - you had a twin brother. I couldn't afford to keep the both of ya. His mother couldn't have kids. I agreed to give one of you away.

[MICKEY]
You? You?! Oh, mam. Why didn't you give me away, mam? I could've... I could've been 'im!

[MICKEY'S GUN ACCIDENTALLY GOES OFF, SHOOTING EDDIE DEAD]

[MRS JOHNSTONE]
No!

[THE POLICE OFFICERS IMMEDIATELY SHOOT MICKEY DEAD IN RESPONSE]

[NARRATOR]
And do we blame superstition for what came to pass?
Or could it be what we, the English, have come to know as "class"?
Did you ever hear the story of the Johnstone twins?
As like each other as two new pins
How one was kept and one given away
How they were born, and they died, on the self same day