The Provo's Song by Lonesome EJ
(This song was first posted in this thread)

My Father used to tell me, when I was but a lad
"You'll be an IRA man, like me and my old Dad!
'Tis Ireland for the Irish, and never compromise!"
His words would echo in my head as sleeping closed my eyes.

Tim and I and Michael turned to flinging bricks and rocks
At the pale faced English soldier-boys riding in their armored trucks.
And at the tender age of 16 (a lad of brave reknown)
I joined the Provo army in a house in Portadown.

On my chest I wore a Crucifix, in my coat an Armalite.
I was pledged to Pope and Erin, and to further Freedom's fight.
My childhood friends and I, we fought, Brothers true in arms,
And if we served our country's cause, then we could do no harm.

Tim was shot in '81 by a stranger on his stair,
Michael went to prison for the bomb at Connell Square,
My own Dad, my Brother Mark, and two of my friends more
Were killed inside MacArtain's Pub by a bomb tossed through the door. 

I swore vengeance for their sakes, and for the sake of Bobby Sands
And in their names, and Ireland's, I've blood upon my hands.
But still we'd come no closer to my Father's sacred prize-
"Ireland for the Irish, and never compromise!" 

And then one night my own dear Wife, she took me by the hand
Saying "I love you and little Meg more than I love this land.
To seek the future with a gun is neither strong nor wise.
The time has come for Green and Orange to find a compromise."

I lay long awake that night, then fell into a dream:
Tim and Mark and my old Dad stood by my bed, it seemed
I woke and held my Mary close in the darkness of our room
As the words my Dad had spoken came back to me in the gloom.

" My son, there is no glory seeking vengeance for the past,
And Hate should sleep like Ireland's dead beneath a veil of grass.
When Irishmen, together, shall make the killing cease,
'Tis Ireland for the children, for Brotherhood and Peace."