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As down the glen one Easter morn to a city fair rode I,
There, armed lines of marching men in squadrons passed me by;
No pipe did hum, no battle drum did sound its dread tattoo,
But the Angelus bell o'er the Liffey swell,
Rang out through the foggy dew.
'Twas England bade our wild geese,
"Go, that small nations might be free."
But their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves,
On the fringe of the great North Sea.
Oh, had they died by Pearse's side,
Or fought with Cathal Brugha,
Their names we'd keep where the Fenians sleep,
'Neath the shroud of the foggy dew.
Right proudly high over Dublin town,
They hung out the flag o' war;
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky,
Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.
And from the plain of Royal Meath,
Strong men came hurrying through,
While Brittania's Huns, with their great big guns,
Sailed in through the foggy dew.
But the bravest fell and the requiem bell
Rang mournfully and clear,
For those who died that Easter tide,
In the springtime of the year.
While the world did gaze with deep amaze,
At those fearless men but few, who bore the fight,
That freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew.
Note: Irish revolutionary song from the 1916 Easter Uprising.
