James Connolly
Collected and Arranged by The Wolfe Tones
The man was all shot through that came to day into the Barrack Square
And a soldier I, I am not proud to say that we killed him there
They brought
him from the prison hospital and to see him in that chair
I swear his smile would,
would far more quickly call a man to prayer
Maybe, maybe I don't understand this
thing that makes these rebels die
Yet all men love freedom and the spring clear in
the sky
I wouldn't do this deed again for all that I hold by
As I gazed
down my rifle at his breast but then, then a soldier I.
They say he was different,
kindly too apart from all the rest.
A lover of the poor-his wounds ill dressed.
He faced us like a man who knew a greater pain
Than blows or bullets ere the
world began: died he in vain
Ready, Present, and him just smiling, Christ I felt
my rifle shake
His wounds all open and around his chair a pool of blood
And I swear his lips said, fire before my rifle shot that cursed lead
And I,
I was picked to kill a man like that, James Connolly
A great crowd had gathered
outside of Kilmainham
Their heads all uncovered, they knelt to the ground.
For inside that grim prison
Lay a great Irish soldier
His life for
his country about to lay down.
He went to his death like a true son of Ireland
The firing party he bravely did face
Then the order rang out: Present arms
and fire
James Connolly fell into a ready-made grave
The black flag was
hoisted, the cruel deed was over
Gone was the man who loved Ireland so well
There was many a sad heart in Dublin that morning
When they murdered James
Connolly-. the Irish rebel Wolfe Tones - James Connelly lyrics
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