Who fears to speak of Easter week? Written about the 1916 Easter Rising.
There are a couple different sets of lyrics for this song, one set is credited to a Maria Giddons. The words i use here are based on the Brendan Behan version.
Both versions are based around the John Kells Ingram poem ‘The Memory of the Dead' aka 'Who fears to speak of 98?' which itself was written in honour of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
lyrics
Who fears to speak of Easter Week
That week of famed renown,
When the boys in green went out to fight
The forces of the Crown.
With Mausers bold and hearts of gold
The Red Countess dressed in green
And high above the G.P.O.
The rebel flag was seen.
Then came ten thousand khaki coats
Our rebel boys to kill,
Before they reached O’Connell Street,
Of fight they got their fill.
They had machine-guns and artillery
And cannon in galore;
But it’s not our fault that e’er a one
Got back to England’s shore.
For six long days we held them off
At odds of ten to one,
And through our lines they could not pass,
For all their heavy guns.
And deadly poison gas they used,
To try to crush Sinn Féin,
And burnt our Irish capital,
Like the Germans did Louvain.
They shot our leaders in a jail
Without a trial, they say;
They murdered women and children,
Who in their cellars lay.
They dug their grave with gun and spade
To hide them from our view
Because they could neither kill nor catch
The Rebels so bold and true.
11 сен 2024
