Lyrics
Come all you young rebels
and list while I sing
The love of one's country
is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with
the speed of a flame
And makes us all part of
the patriot game
My name is O'Hanlon
I've just turned sixteen
My home is in Monaghan
where I was weaned
I've learned all my life
injustice to blame
And so I am part of
the patriot game
It's barely two years since
I wandered away
With a local battalion
of the old IRA
They told me of heroes
I wanted the same
To play a great part in
the patriot game
Where is the young man
this earth ever taught
Whose life is less sacred
than all the old fraught
Whose boyhoods less lovely
whose visions less fate
Than the old men who paid for
the patriot game
And now I am dying
my body all holes
I think of the old men
who bargained and sold
I'm sorry my rifle
had not done the same
To the rebels who sold out
the patriot game
End
