The Bluebells - The Patriot Game lyrics

Come all you 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, I've just turned sixteen My home is in Monaghan, where I was weaned I learned all my life injustice to blame And so I'm part of the patriot game It's barely two years since I wandered away With the 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 then all the old fraught Whose boy who's less lucky, whose visionless fate Than the old men who paid for the patriot game And now as I'm dying, my body all holes I think of the old men who bargained and sold I'm sorry my rifle has not done the same To those rebels who sold out the patriot game