Re: Irish Rebel Songs (Lyrics)
Enniskillen Dragoons
Our troop was made ready at the dawn of the day
From lovely Enniskillen they were marching us away.
They put us then on board a ship to cross the raging main,
To fight in bloody battle in the sunny land of Spain.
Chorus:
Fare thee well Enniskillen, fare thee well for a while
And all around the borders of Erin's green isle;
And when the war is over we'll return in full bloom
And we'll all welcome home our Enniskillen Dragoons.
Oh Spain it is a gallant land where wine and ale flow free
There's lots of lovely women there to dandle on your knee
And often in a tavern there we'd make the rafters ring
When every soldier in the house would raise his glass and sing
Chorus.
Well we fought for Ireland's glory there and many a man did fall
From musket and from bayonet and from thundering cannon ball
And many a foeman we laid low, amid the battle throng
And as we prepared for action you would often hear this song
Chorus.
Well now the fighting's over and for home we have set sail,
Our flag above this lofty ship is fluttering in the gale:
They've given us a pension boys of fourpence each a day
And when we reach Enniskillen never morewe'll have to say.
Chorus.
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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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