We Are the Irish

Like chaff in the wind we were cast from our shores
As emigrants, as exiles, as convicts, as slaves
For hundreds of years Ireland never saw peace
From the land that they loved they were forced o'er the seas
As soldiers of fortune in the Irish brigades
Our regiments condemned to the wars and the graves
The soldiers, the sailors, the Wild Geese, the weavers,
the rebels, the heroes, the helpless, the brave.

We are the Irish all over the world
My heart is with you, may the road rise to meet you
With god's (Am)hand to (C)keep you from harm
I will be with you always, all the days
Till the (Em)sun and the moon and the stars in the sky cease to shine

Aye-yaye-yaye, aye-yaye-yaye,
aye-yaye-yaye, aye-yayeya-yaye-yaye

Oh, they left their homes so eerie and still
Generations were forced from the land that they loved
Their commerce all stifled, their industries run down
By taxes and landlords and goverments that ruled,
From wars and disease, as religious refugees,
a-fleeing the cruel penal laws and decrease,
the horrors of hunger has torn us asunder,
the young and the old are all scattered and gone.

Aye-yaye-yaye, aye-yaye-yaye,
aye-yaye-yaye, aye-yayeya-yaye-yaye