Come all you young rebels and list while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banished fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the patriot game
My name is O'Hanlon and I've just gone sixteen
My home is in Monaghan where I was weaned
I've learned all my life cruel England to blame
And so I'm a part of the patriot game
It's barely two years since I wandered away
With a local battalion of the bold IRA
I've read of our heroes and I wanted the same
Just to play my own part in the patriot game
This of ours has for long been half free
Six counties are under John Bull's tyranny
So I gave up my boyhood to drill and to train
And to play my own part in the patriot game
And now as I lie here my body all holes
I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
And I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those Quislings who sold out the patriot game
So come all you young rebels and list while I sing
For the love of one's country is a terrible thing
It banished fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the patriot game