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I am a merry ploughboy and I plough the fields by day,
Till a lightning flash came to me mind that I should run away;
I've always hated slavery since the day that I was born,
Now I'm off to join the I.R.A. and I'm off tomorrow morn.
So we're off to Dublin in the green, in the green,
Where the helmets glisten in the sun,
Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crack,
To the echo of a Thompson gun.
I leave behind me old grey coat, I leave behind me plough.
I leave behind me horse and mule, for no more I need them now;
I'll take my short revolver and my bandolier of lead,
And live or die I can but try to avenge my country's dead.
So we're off to Dublin in the green, in the green,
Where the helmets glisten in the sun,
Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crack,
To the echo of a Thompson gun.
There's one I leave behind me, a colleen I adore,
I wonder if she thinks of me when she hears those cannons roar;
And when the war is over, and dear old Ireland's free,
I'll take her to the church to wed, and a rebel's wife she'll be.
So we're off to Dublin in the green, in the green,
Where the helmets glisten in the sun,
Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crack,
To the echo of a Thompson gun.
This variant arranged and recorded for German television by Johnny McEvoy, 1966.
See more songs by Johnny McEvoy.
The YouTube video below features a live performance in Dublin of a variant for the Wolfe Tones' 40th Anniversary Concert.
