Re: Irish Rebel Songs (Lyrics)
The Reverend Ian
There's a man up in Ulster you all know him well,
For Catholics and Republicans he'd chase in hell,
His name's Ian Paisley and that is the man,
That the Catholics and Republicans just couldn't give a damn.
Tooraloo Tooralay
You're the best friend we've had since the old IRA.
Well now Ian went home and at his wife he did stare,
For to see Austin Curry and Gerry Fitt there,
Sure Ian the critter his head went astray,
When his wife said I've had curry, I could feel fit all day.
Tooraloo Tooralay
You're the best friend we've had since the old IRA.
Well now Ian went home very late one night,
And the sight he saw there it gave him a fright,
He looked under his wife's bedclothes for he was so bold,
And the knickers she wore they were green, white and gold.
Tooraloo Tooralay
You're the best friend we've had since the old IRA.
"Ach now Ian, now Ian, now don't be alarmed,"
"For it's only a tricolour it'll do thee no harm,"
"I only wanted a wee bit with you,"
"Sure you wouldn't take them down if they were red, white and blue!"
Tooraloo Tooralay
You're the best friend we've had since the old IRA.
Well Ian he died and to Heaven did go,
"Ah, where did you come from?" Saint Peter wanted to know,
"Sure I'm from loyal Ulster!", he said with a sneer,
Said Peter, "I'm from the Bogside, you won't get in here!"
Tooraloo Tooralay
You're the best friend we've had since the old IRA
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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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