A ROW IN THE TOWN
A Street Ballad of Easter Week

I'll sing you a song of a row in the town,
When the Green Flag went up and the Red Flag came down,
'Twas the neatest and sweetest row ever you saw,
When we played the best game played in Erin Go Bragh.

A thousand brave fellows of every degree,                                                                                     With rifles and shotguns, they swore to be free,
One fine Easter Monday, they laughed at the 'Law',
And played the best game played in Erin Go Bragh.

A great English Captain was raging that day,
Saying, 'Give me one hour and I'll blow them away',
But he never thought, what he afterwards saw,
The dead khaki soldiers in Erin Go Bragh.

In thousands and thousands right on us they poured,
Their big guns and small guns, they rattled and roared,
But our big Mauser bullets got stuck in their craw,
And they died from lead-poisoning in Erin Go Bragh,

Our brave De Valera was down at Ringsend,
The honour of Ireland to hold and defend,
He had no veteran soldiers but volunteers raw,
Playing sweet Mauser music for Erin Go Bragh

Bold Kent and his comrades, like lions at bay,
From the South Union windows poured death and dismay,
Their was fear in their souls when the Saxon swine saw,
How we played the best game played in Erin Go Bragh.

A health to Ned Daly and all his command,
From the Four Courts to King Street, their fighting was grand,
For the might of the Empire, they cared not a straw,
But played the best game played in Erin Go Bragh.

God rest gallant Pearse and his comrades who died,
Jim Connolly and Mallin, MacDonagh, MacBride,
And here's to young Heuston, who gave one 'Hurrah',
And faced the machine guns for Erin Go Bragh.

Forget not the men of the brave rank and file,
And the lion-hearted women of Erin's green isle,
Let true men salute them in wonder and awe,
The bravest and greatest in Erin Go Bragh.

O, glory to Dublin, it's hers, the renown,
Through long generations her fame shall go down,
And children shall tell how their forefathers saw,
The red blaze of freedom o'er Erin Go Bragh.

This is the full version of 'Erin Go Bragh' as published by Seamus De Burca (Bourke) in his 1957 biography of his uncle Peadar Kearney. Presumably, it's pretty close to the original. De Burca was the son of the actor and writer Patrick J. Bourke (1883-1932) who was married to Kearney's sister, Margaret Mary. De Burca claimed that P.J. Bourke was the first person ever to sing 'The Soldier's Song' (apart from the composers, Kearney and Patrick Heeney), in his house at 10 Lower Dominick Street.

It's a pity that Hamish Imlach's version wasn't included on his recent double CD instead of one of the rubbishy tracks that were. I think it's probable that Hamish got the song from the singing of Josh Macrae.                                                                                                

Go brách = 'for ever'. With the exception of De Valera, all of the men named in the song were executed in 1916.