I was born in the Dublin streets, where the Royal drums they beat,
And those loving English feet they walked all over us,
And each and every night, when me father'd come home tight,
He'd invite the neighbours outside with this chorus:
Chorus:
Oh, come out you black and tans, come out and fight me like a man,
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away,
From the green and lovely fields of Killashandra.
Oh, come let me hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell,
When you thought him well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of sixteen were executed.
(chorus)
Oh, come tell us how you slew those old Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely faced each one with your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.
(chorus)
Now the day is coming fast and the time is here at last,
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need sure our kids will sing, "Godspeed"
With a verse or two of Stephen Behan's chorus.
(chorus)