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In Mount Joy jail, one monday morning,
High above the gallows tree,
Kevin Barry gave his young life,
For the cause of liberty.
Just a lad of eighteen summers,
Yet no one can deny,
When he walked to death that morning,
He proudly held his head on high.
Just before he faced the hangman,
In his dreary prison cell,
The British soldiers tortured Barry,
Just because he would not tell,
The names of all his brave companions,
And other things they wished to know.
Turn informer or we'll kill you.
Kevin Barry answered no.
Proudly standing to attention,
As he bade his last farewell,
To his broken hearted mother,
Whose grief no one could tell.
For the cause he proudly cherished,
This sad parting had to be,
To his death walked softly smiling,
So that Ireland might be free.
Another martyr for old Ireland,
Another murder for the crown,
Whose laws may kill the Irish,
But can't keep their 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 live and die.
Collected in 1951 from Michael Murphy and Francis O'Brien of Trepassey, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
Note: Kevin Gerald Barry (1902-1920), a medical student and IRA volunteer, was executed for shooting a 19-year-old British soldier.
