The Patriot Game

Come all you young rebels
And list while we 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'Hannon
And I've just gone sixteen.
My home is in Monaghan
Where I was weaned

I've learned all my life cruel England's to blame
And so I'm a part of the patriot game
This Ireland of ours
Has for long been half-free
Six counties are under
John Bull's tyranny

So, we gave up our boyhood
To drill and to train
And play our own part in
The patriot game

It's barely two years since they wandered away
And it was with the local battalion of the bold IRA
For they'd read of our heroes and
They wanted the same
To play their own part in
The patriot game

And now as I lie here
My body all holes
I think of those traitors
Who bargained in souls

I wish that my rifle
Had given the same
To those Quislings who sold out
The patriot game