The Patriot Game

Come all you young rebels, and list while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the patriot game

My name is O'Hanlon, and I'm just gone sixteen
My home is in Monaghan, where I was weaned
I've learned all my life, cruel England to blame
And so I'm a part of the patriot game

It's barely two years since I wandered away
With the local battalion of the bold IRA
I'd read of our heroes, and I wanted thе same
To play up my part in the patriot game

Thеy told me how Connolly was shot in a chair
His wounds from the battle all bleeding and bare
His fine body twisted, all battered and lame
They soon made him part of the patriot game

This island of ours has far long been half free
Six counties are under John Bull's tyranny
So I gave up my boyhood to drill and to train
To play my own part in the patriot game

And now as I lie here, my body all holes
I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those Quislings who sold out in the patriot game