The Patriot Game

Come all you rebels and list' while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the Patriot Game

My name is O'Hanlon and I've just gone sixteen
My home is in Monaghan where I was weaned
I've learned all my life, cruel England to blame
And so I'm a part of the Patriot Game

It's barely two years since I wandered away
With a local battalion of the bold I.R.A
I'd read of our heroes and I wanted the same
Just to play my own part in the Patriot Game

This island of ours has for long been half free
Six counties are under John Bull's tyranny
So I gave up my boyhood to drill and to train
And to play my own part in the Patriot Game

And now as I lie here, my body all holes
I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
And I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those quislings who sold out the Patriot Game

So come all you rebels and list' while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the Patriot Game