The 12th of July (Words: John Frazier [1804-1852], Music, Seàn Tyrrell) Come pledge again your heart and your hand One grasp that never will sever Our password be our native land Our motto "Love forever" And let the Orange lily be Your badge my patriot brother The everlasting green for me And we for one another Behold how green the galant stem On which the flower is blooming How in one heavenly breeze and beam Both flower and stem are glowing The same good soil sustaining both Makes both united flourish But cannot give the orange growth And cease the green to nourish. The more that hand that plucks that flower Will vainly strive to cherish But in that our the stem blooms on The flower it begins to perish Regard them then of equal worth While last their genial weather The time's at hand when deep in earth They will both sink together. And even though it be in our country's cause Our party feelings blended 'Til lasting peace from equal laws On both will have descended 'Til the Orange lily be Your badge my patriot brother The everlasting green for me And we for one another. Sung by Sean Tyrrell on Cry of a Dreamer (1995) John Frazier (1804-1852) A cabinet maker by trade, a poet by every instinct that poetry holds dear. He lies in an obscure corner of Glasnevin in an unmarked grave. Born a Presbyterian, he exhorts all his countrymen then and now to let the past bury its dead and walk hand-in-hand into a loving future. In memory of Johnny Piggott and to the people of both communities in Belfast, but especially my long standing friends from the Shankill Rd. (Sean Tyrrell) EZ oct99
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!