Further to my rather stumbling attempt to remember the version of Kevin Barry that I thought I knew, I've had a rethink, and see now that I've put some of the words for the third verse into the fourth verse, hence the gap.

Anyway, despite the synapse situation, the way I've thought about it is like so -

In Mountjoy Gaol one Monday morning
High upon the gallows tree,
Kevin Barry gave his young life
For the cause of liberty.
But a lad of eighteen summers,
Yet no-one can deny,
As he walked to death that morning
He proudly held his head on high.

Just before he faced the hangman,
In his lonely prison cell
British soldiers tortured Barry
Because he wouldn't tel
The names of his companions,
And other things they wished to know.
' Turn informer, or we'll kill you.'
Kevin Barry answered 'No'

'Why not shoot me like a soldier?
Do not hang me like a dog,
For I fought to free old Ireland
On that bright September(?) morn.(?)
All around that little bakery
Where we fought them hand to hand.
Why not shoot me like a soldier,
For I fought to free Ireland.

Another martyr for old Ireland,
Another murder for the crown,
Whose cruel laws may kill the Irish,
But they can't keep our spirit down.
Lads like Barry are no cowards.
From the foe they will not fly.
Lads like Barry will free Ireland
For her sake, they'll fight and die.

This is a piece of dubious propaganda, of course. The counter-propaganda is that after the gunbattle round Boland's Bakery, Kevin Barry was found hiding under a car with a gun that hadn't been fired.

However, his execution made sure of his promotion to icon, whatever the truth of the matter.

Shoh slaynt,

Bobby Bob