 | Ballads of Irish chivalry |  |
195
ALLISDRUM'S MARCH AT THE BATTLE OF KNOCKINOSS.
A.D. 1648.
I
Blow up the pipes with the brave battle chorus—Look to your banner, the foe is before us—
Steady your guns, but when wanting to slay more,
There's nought like the rush and the slash of the claymore!
Follow me, follow me, dauntless and steady,
Shoulder to shoulder; the battle is ready;
Many a foeman will ne'er see a day more,
When we blow up the pipes and fall on with the claymore!
II
Up Knockinoss comes he, Murrogh the Burner,The scourge of his race, of the Old Faith the spurner;
Black be the day he returned into Ireland,
To change her from peace to a woeful and dire land!
Follow me, follow me, dauntless and steady,
Shoulder to shoulder; the battle is ready:
Look to your guns, but when wanting to slay more,
Blow louder the pipes and fall on with the claymore!
196
III
On down the hill, and ne'er fire till you're near them,Then try from your path with one volley to clear them;
Down with your guns then, and up with your claymore,
And fast from our onset they'll soon clear the way more!
Follow me, follow me, dauntless and steady,
Shoulder to shoulder; the battle is ready;
For God and our country we'll never delay more
To blow up the pipes and fall on with the claymore!
IV
Crash thro' the foe went that chief and his brave men,With bosoms the stoutest that ever God gave men;
But curst be the day when Lord Taaffe grew faint-hearted,
And stood not, nor charged, but in panic departed!
Leaving that chief with his comrades to die there,
Leaving their corses for th'eagles to lie there;
But the foeman he rued and remembered each day more
Stout Allisdrum's march, and the sweep of his claymore!
| Ballads of Irish chivalry | |