by Eamon O’Doherty, recorded by Christie Moore on The
Iron Behind the Velvet
Come all of you fine people, wherever you may be
I’ll sing of a brave Belfast man,
Who scorned the army’s might, though they’d shoot
him on sight,
And they shot down Joe McCann, Joe McCann,
They shot down Joe McCann.
He fought for the people in the markets where he
worked,
In defence of the rights of man,
But the hired Branch crew told the soldiers what
to do,
And they shot down Joe McCann, Joe McCann,
They shot down Joe McCann.
In a Belfast bakery in the August of the year,
When internment was imposed throughout the land,
Six volunteers from Belfast held six hundred
troops at bay,
And their leader was Joe McCann, Joe McCann,
Their leader was Joe McCann.
He carried no gun, so he started to run,
To escape them as many’s the time before.
One bullet brought him down, and as he lay on the
ground
They shot him ten times more, ten times more,
They shot him ten times more.
He fought for the rights of the people of this
land,
The Protestant and Catholic workin’ man.
He caused the bosses to fear, and for this they
paid him dear,
When they murdered brave Joe McCann, Joe McCann,
They murdered brave Joe McCann.