Re: Irish Rebel Songs (Lyrics)
Ireland Unfree
n a dimly lit room by the smouldering fire
Sat an old man so lonely so sad and so tired
Once he struggled for freedom, now he struggles to live
With his few small possessions and his past to relive
And his thoughts wander back to the days of his prime
Oh it seems now there´s nothing goes faster than time
To his comrades of old he remembers the day
When he marched behind Pearse and the bold IRA
There´s a faded old picture on the wall all alone
A dusty old picture, the pride of his home
With a harp and a shamrock with these words underneath
"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace"
And it´s to Easter week and his thoughts wander back
Oh those leaders of men sure no courage did lack
But now he´s just left with his memories of old
For his name nor his story will never be told
There´s a faded old picture on the wall all alone
A dusty old picture, the pride of his home
With a harp and a shamrock with these words underneath
"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace"
He gazed at that picture and gave a sad smile
For each wrinkle and line told the struggle of time
Then he gazed once again and his eyes filled with tears
For the man in that picture was his friend Padraic Pearse
There´s a faded old picture on the wall all alone
A dusty old picture, the pride of his home
With a harp and a shamrock with these words underneath
"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace"
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The traditions of the Irish people are the oldest of any race in Europe north and west of the Alps, and they themselves are the longest settled on their own soil
- Edmund Curtis (A History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to 1922)
The Irish are one of the most ancient nations that I know of at this end of the world, and are from as mighty a race as the world ever brought forth.
For it is certain that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently and long before England; that they had letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish.
- Edmund Spenser (writer, and British Government Official in Ireland, AD 1596).
The renaissance began in Ireland seven hundred years before it was known in Italy. And Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, was at one time the metropolis of civilisation.
- Arsene Darmesteter, Professor of Old French and Literature
Ireland can indeed lay claim to a great past; she can not only boast of having been the birthplace and abode of high culture in the fifth and sixth centuries . . . but also of having made strenous efforts in the seventh and up to the tenth century to spread her learning among the German and Romance peoples, thus forming the actual fountain of our present continental civilisation.
- Heinrich Zimmer, Professor of Celtic and Sanskrit, Member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences
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