I listened to the Mick Galvin recording on Spotify, and I'd like to add a few things I hear differently.

THE FERNS EXILE
(Mick Galvin – I think)

Bitter Autumn breezes blow, along the pier at Port-Saint-Louis,
The seabirds bob and weave above the swell;
In his muffler and great coat, buttoned high against the cold,
The old man with soldier's bearing gazes out.

Now his thoughts are not on Ghent, or on that new French Parliament,
Or the honours won on Elbe or Waterloo,
But instead those blue eyes gaze back through the years' now-misted haze,
To boyhood days and bygone sad events.

CHORUS
(So) put your feeble hand in mine, let me take you back in time,
To the spring of '98 when freedom called;
When as a youth with fiery pride, along with Kelly and McBride,
You marched to Tubberneering side by side.

But your dreams were not to be, and like the Wild Geese had to flee,
To join Napoleon's army was your fate;
And when at night you shed those tears, and hoped they'd wash away your fears,
And the memories of how it might have been.

CHORUS

Now the years have come and gone, and the fighting is all done;
'Twas in the Frenchmen's cause you had to toil;
While on a lonely Ferns Hill, a rusted plough is lying still,
No more in practised hands will part the soil.

CHORUS

CHORUS (repeated with changed words)
So put your feeble hand in mine, let me take you back in time,
And on angels' wings across the sea we'll fly,
To the days not long ago, with the friends we used to know,
To stroll once more down by sweet Slaney side.


Battle of Tuberneering (1798 Rebellion)
Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône - mouth of the Rhone in southern France.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5UaXTiJWU - recording by 'Theresa and the Stars'