SEAN SOUTH OF GARRYOWEN (also to the same tune, Roddy McCorley):

'Twas on a dreary New Year's Eve when the shades of night fell down.
A lorry load of volunteers approached a border town.
There were men from Dublin and from Cork, Fermanagh and Tyrone,
But the leader was a Limerick lad, Sean South of Garryowen.

And as they moved along the street up to the barrack door,
They scorned the danger they would meet, the fate that lay in store.
They were fighting for old Ireland, to save their very own,
And the leader of that gallant band was South of Garryowen.

But the sergeant foiled their daring plan; he spied them through the door.
From the guns and all the rifles too, a hail of death did pour,
And when that awful night was o'er two men lay cold as stone.
There was one from near the border and one from Garryowen.

No more he'll hear the seagull cry or the murmuring Shannon's tide,
For he fell beneath a northern sky, brave O'Hanlon by his side.
He's gone to join that gallant band of Plunkett, Pierce and Tone,
Another martyr for old Ireland, Sean South of Garryowen.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 28-Jun-02.