We’ve listened long to traitors mean,
False England’s scarlet praising;
We’ve heard them mock our Irish green
Until our blood seemed blazing!
And chieftains, too, who should be true,
Have kept our ranks asunder,
But Faction’s sound to-day is drowned
In Freedom’s battle-thunder!
Then here’s hurrah for all the brave,
No matter who may lead ’em,
And here’s a curse on every slave
Who mars the cause of freedom!
Let leaders vain aside remain
Until their feuds are ended,
’Tis by the man who knows no clan
Our flag must be defended.
We’ve men from Galway to Kildare,
From Limerick’s walls to Derry,
Bold ramblers from the County Clare
And mountaineers from Kerry.
We’ll chase our alien foes away,
We’ll tear our bonds asunder;
We care not who’s to lead to-day,
We’ll fight and conquer under!
THE GRAVE OF THE MARTYRS.[D]
FAR away from the home and the friends they love best,
’Mid murd’rers and felons all silent they rest;
Not a cross, not a stone, marks the desolate spot
Where the bones of our martyred ones crumble and rot!
In the cold prison ground, sad and lone, side by side,
With their faces to Ireland, they sleep as they died;
And the Angel of Liberty, hovering near,
On the consecrate grave drops a pitying tear!
Surrounded by foemen, ’mid jeering and hate,
True as steel to the last, they went forth to their fate,
With a prayer for thy cause on the high gallows-tree—
Dear home of our fathers! they perished for thee!
When they took them away from that desolate place,
They found death had left a bright smile on each face,
So they buried them quickly, lest true men should see
How the hosts of the tyrant were baffled by Three!
For still are they free, as no tyrant can bind
The proud, chainless soul or the fetterless mind;
And though the cold limbs may be laid in the grave,
Soul and mind are enshrined in the hearts of the brave!
Long, long may our land guard and treasure each name,
Till a nation made free hymns their glorious fame;
And our grandsons shall tell that from yonder cold grave
Sprang the spirit yet destined our nation to save!