The Lowlands of Flanders
                      by Bruce Scott (1998)
                (melody: "The Streams of Buclody")


On the Lowlands of Flanders there's a place they call Messines,
Where the Peace Tower of Ireland stands proud and serene
To commemorate her soldiers who bravely fought and died:
Now their sons and their daughters can all honour them with pride.

They sailed from old Erin, their green isle across the sea,
From the land of the Shamrock to set small nations free;
From their own divided island, where so many were oppressed,
To the Lowlands of Flanders, where so many lie at rest.

They came from every country, every corner of the world;
on the Lowlands of Flanders into battle they were hurled,
where they did their soldiers duty, as they fought beside the French
in the chaos, and the carnage, and the nightmare of the trench.

They came from every county in their troubled native land:
From the banks of the Liffey and the wide Shannon grand;
From the banks of the Lee and the Lagan they did come,
Where they died in their thousands on the banks of the Somme.

There were men of all religions there who perished in that war
Both Catholic and Protestant from Mother Ireland's shore:
And some, when on returning to their troubled native land,
They were shunned and forsaken, just a poor forgotten band.

Many years have now passed over since the ending of that war
The Great War to end all conflict and win peace for evermore.
Can all Irishmen from North and South agree to live in peace
In the memory of their forefathers, who died that war might cease?

On the lowlands of Flanders stands the Irish tower of peace,
To the memory of those soldiers who died that war might cease;
And their graves are there in thousands where the red poppies bloom,
Where the flower of Irish manhood all went marching to their doom.