Grace (Frank & Sean O'Meara, 1985)
(Click on title to play tune)

As we gather in the chapel here in Old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few days, oh will they say we've failed
From our schooldays they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me

Chorus:
Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye

Now I know it's hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bear for these brave men, my love for this dear land
But when Padhraic called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go

Chorus

Now as the dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too
On this May morn as I walk out my thoughts will be of you
And I'll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I love so much that I could see his blood upon the rose

Chorus

There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye

Notes: Irish poet Joseph Mary Plunkett was condemned to death for his part in the Easter 1916 uprising. At 1:30 a.m. on May 4, 1916, just hours before his execution, he married his fiancee Grace Gifford in the Kilmainham Jail chapel. Padhraic = Patrick Pearse, a leader of the uprising; GPO = General Post Office (Dublin), main site of the uprising; "I could see his blood upon the rose" = reference to one of Plunkett's poems about Christ. Midi sequenced by Tom Connole.

grace.htm 2/7/07