Have agreed to look them o'er
While the Home Rule Bill is resting on the shelf."
CHORUS
(Same as first stanza. The first line is a parody on the loyalist toast: "Here's a health to the King, and God save Ireland!")
The Irish Citizen Army song was written by Jo Connolly, a young workingman, whose brother, Sean Connolly, was killed while leading the attack on Dublin Castle Easter Monday. Jo was the boy who cut loopholes in the roof of the College of Surgeons. He was deported to Wandsworth Prison, but after a few months was released. The song is sung to the tune which you know as "John Brown's Body":
THE IRISH CITIZEN ARMY
I
The Irish Citizen Army is the name of our wee band,
With our marchin' and our drillin', I'm sure you'll call it grand;