My love is warm as nights grow colder
So raise your head now young soldier
Let your heart beat a fine pace
Please just shun her cold embrace
Dig deep my love dig deep,
Soon I will sing, time to sleep
You are coming home, coming home
No more battle fields to roam

Though the blackbirds grow bolder
Keep your head up young soldier
Though many young red Robins die
There'll be no tear in her eye
Dig deep my love dig deep,
Soon I will sing, time to sleep
You are coming home, coming home
No more battle fields to roam

Rest your head on my shoulder
Rest your head now dear soldier
You are at the top of the hill now
All behind you now is still
Dig deep my love dig deep,
Now I will sing, time to sleep
You are nearly home, nearly home
No more battle fields to roam

As I watch the last leaf fall
I lost your love to country's call
I will wear the black, cry the tears
But you're with me down the years
Now sleep my love, just sleep
In my cold arms you will lie deep
You have come home, you have come home
No more battle fields to roam

You have come home, you have come home
No more battle fields to roam

You have come home, you have come home
No more battle fields to roam

You have come home, you have come home
No more battle fields to roam

Lyrics: Joe O'Byrne
Vocal: Denise Morgan
Music: Holly Wyatt and Craig Edmondson
Studio Arrangement: Vicky Batrack

Diane's Deli: A Tale from Paradise Heights Poster by Darren Mcginn

Writer's Note: This was a very delicate song to write. I wanted to create the form of a ballad, a rebel song, a love song and soldier's campfire song. I wanted it to be something that could not be labelled as belonging to any side or faction.

The song itself is a ghost story, a maiden singing to her love who has gone away to war, a timeless song that could reach back in time to the battles of the clans. Banshee's wail on the night that a family member is due to die. In this case a wounded soldier, rising from his body. The banshee, she awaits his soul, she mourns him, she wails in the night for him and ultimately claims him.

There is an ache to the song, but there is love too, a love for peace - no more battle fields to roam.

Joe O'Byrne

DIANE'S DELI: A Tale from Paradise Heights

Written & Directed by Joe O'Byrne

Sean Ginty is a café owner in Paradise Heights. A quiet and unassuming man who wears a watch that stopped over twenty five years ago. He’s a father figure to both his staff; literary student Jake, and Gabrielle, an artist and scarred survivor of a horrific fire that left her orphaned some years ago. It’s a quiet but somewhat idyllic existence. DS Mackey, from the local police, is a burnt out and bitter man with an eye for opportunity and the other eye on Sean; he is more than curious about his past.

When a woman turns up in the café late one night, a chain of events is set in motion that will have devastating effects on all their lives...

A separate and complete tale of its own, set on the mean streets of Paradise Heights. An edge of town tale, where the dark opens up to ghosts from the past - and present. Where the urban meets the supernatural. A powerful story of remorse and revenge and featuring characters seen in The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights.


REVIEWS:
Diane's Deli, the latest play in the Paradise Height series by the mighty Joe O'Byrne; a noirish tale of very bad men seeking belated redemption, filled with his customary dark wit, salty dialogue and bruised, desperate romanticism. Yep, you should all get off your arses and go see it before it's too late.
Steve Balshaw, Grimmfest

...balancing moments of human drama with acts of shocking violence, Diane’s Deli is remarkably gripping and refuses to let you go...O’Byrne’s writing is strong, lyrical and bold, with a nuanced performance of restrained anger to match. Brutally emotional and slickly crafted. Diane's Deli is a thoroughly recommended excursion into the dangerously real world of Paradise Heights. The Fiction Stoker

Powerful performances tonight in Diane's Deli
Chris Honer, Artistic Director, Manchester Library Theatre

O'Byrne writes excellent dialogue, there is some fine acting in the play.
David Cunningham, Whatsonstage.com

When are TV commissioners going to wake up and find Joe O'Byrne?
Stephen Kingston, The Salford Star

More on Tales from Paradise Heights at
talesfromparadiseheights.com

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