Patriot Game

Billy Behen

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

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

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

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