The Dubliners - The Patriot Game lyrics

Patriot Game come all ye young rebels
And list while I sing
For the love of one's country
Is a terrible thing
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame
And it makes us all part of the patriot game
My name is O'Hanlon
And I've just turned sixteen
My home is in Monaghan
And where I was weaned i learned all my life
Cruel England's to blame
So now I am part of the patriot game
This Ireland of ours has too
Long been half free
Six counties lie under John Bull's tyranny
But still De Valera is greatly to blame
For shirking his part in the Patriot game
They told me how Connolly was
Shot in his chair
His wounds from the fighting
All bloody and bare
His fine body twisted, all battered and lame
They soon made me part of the patriot game
It's nearly two years since I wandered away
With the local battalion of the bold IRA
For I read of our heroes, and wanted the same
To play out my part in the patriot game

I don't mind a bit if I shoot down police
They are lackeys for war
Never guardians of peace
And yet at deserters I'm never let aim
The rebels who sold out the patriot game
And now as I lie here, my body all holes
I think of those traitors
Who bargained in souls
And I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those Quislings who sold
Out the patriot game