I am a proud young Irishman.
In Ulster's hills my life began;
A happy boy through green fields ran;
I kept God's and man's laws.
But when my age was barely ten
My country's wrongs were told again.
By tens of thousands marching men
And my heart stirred to the cause.
So I'll wear no convict's uniform
Nor meekly serve my time
That Britain might brand lreland 's fight
Eight hundred years of crime.
I learned of centuries of strife,
Of cruel laws, injustice rife;
I saw now in my own young life
The fruits of foreign sway:
Protestors threatened, tortured, maimed,
Divisions nurtured, passions flamed,
Outrage provoked, right's cause defamed;
That is the conqueror's way.
Descended from proud Connacht clan,
Concannon served cruel Britain' s plan;
Man' s inhumanity to man
Had spawned a trusty slave.
No strangers are these bolts and locks,
No new design these dark H-Blocks,
Black Cromwell lives while Mason stalks;
The bully taunts the brave.
Does Britain need a thousand years
Of protest, riot, death and tears,
Or will this past decade of fears
Of eighty decades spell
An end to Ireland' s agony,
New hope for human dignity;
And will the last obscenity
Be this grim H-Block cell?
Up like a bird and high over
the city
"Three men are missing" I heard the
warder cry
"Sure it must have been a bird that flew
into the prison
Or one of those new Ministers" said the
warder from Mountjoy
Early one evening as the branchmen they were
sleeping
A little helicopter flew in from the sky
Down into the yard where some prisoners were
walking
"Get ready for inspection" said the
warder in the ´Joy
Down in the yard through the pushing and the
shoving
Three of the prisoners they climbed upon the
bird
And up and away they went into the grey skies
"I think someone escaped" said the
warder in the ´Joy
Over in the Dail they were drinking gin and
brandy
The Minister for Justice was soaking up the sun
Then came this little message that some
prisoners were escaping
"I think it´s three of the Provos"
said the warder in the ´Joy
"Search every hole search every nook and
cranny
Let no man rest until these men are found,
For this cannot happen to a law and order
government."
"I think you´ll never find them said the
warder in Mountjoy"
Henry Joy
Unknown
An Ulsterman I am proud to be
From the Antrim Glens I come.
Although I labour by the sea
I have followed flag and drum.
I have heard the martial tramp of men
I've seen them fight and die.
And well do I remember when
I followed Henry Joy.
I pulled my boat up from the sea
I hid my sails away,
I hung my nets on a greenwood tree
And I scanned the moonlit bay.
The boys were out, and the Redcoats too,
I kissed my wife goodbye;
And in the shade of the greenwood glade
I followed Henry Joy. "
Ah, lads for Ireland's cause we fought;
For home and heart we bled,
Though our numbers were few our hearts beat true,
And five to one lay dead,
And many a lassie missed her lad,
And mother mourned her boy;
For youth was strong in that gallant throng
Who followed Henry Joy.
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