Smashing of the Van

Attend you gallant Irishmen and listen for a while

I'll sing to you the praises of the sons of Erin's Isle

It's of those gallant heroes who voluntarily ran

To release two Irish shamrocks from an English prison van

My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand

May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van

On the eighteenth of September, it was a dreadful year

When sorrow and excitement ran throughout all Lancashire

At a gathering of the Irish boys they volunteered each man

To release those Irish prisoners out of the prison van

My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand

May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van

In Manchester one morning those heroes did agree

Their leaders, Kelly and Deasy, should have their liberty

They drank a health to Ireland and soon made up the plan

To meet the prisoners on the road and take and smash the van

My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand

May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van

With courage bold those heroes went and soon the van did stop

They cleared the guards from back and front and then smashed in the top

But in blowing open of the lock, they chanced to kill a man

So three men must die on the scaffold high for smashing of the van

My lads for freedom, let's all join heart and hand

May the Lord have mercy on the boys that helped to smash the van

So now kind friends I will conclude, I think it would be right

That all true-hearted Irishmen together should unite

Together should sympathize, my friends, and do the best we can

To keep the memories ever green of the boys that smashed the van