I was born on a Dublin street where the royal drums did beat
And the loving English feet walked all over us,
And every single night when me father'd come home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:
(chorus) Oh, come out you black and tans,
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away,
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.
Come tell us how you slew
Them ol' Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely faced each one
With your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them damn natives to their marrow.
[chorus]
Come let us hear you tell
How you slandered great Parnell,
When you thought him well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers
That you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of sixteen were executed.
[chorus]
The day is coming fast
And the time is here at last,
When each shoneen will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need
Sure my kids wil sing, "Godspeed!"
With a bar or two of Stephen Behan's chorus
[chorus]
An alternate concluding verse is sometimes sung:
The day is coming fast
And it will soon be here at last
When North and South again belong to Erin
And when John Bull is gone,
We'll all join in this song,
And the trumpets of freedom will be blarin'
[chorus]
Another alternate verse:
Ahh the time is coming fast
and I think them days are near
when each English shod in heel
will run before us
and if there be a need
then our kids will say "god speed"
with a verse or two of singing this fine chorus
Another alternate verse:
Ahh the time is coming fast
and I think them days are near
when each tout and traitor
they will run before us
and if there be a need
then our kids will say "god speed"
with a bar or two of Stephen Behan's chorus
Another alternate verse was often sung during the Troubles, in reference to Bloody Sunday (occasionally replacing one of the choruses);
Oh, come out ye English Huns
Come out and fight without yer guns
Show yer wife how you won medals up in Derry
Ye Murdered Free Young Men, And you'll do the same again
So get out and take yer bloody army with you
