Digital Tradition Mirror

O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell to Dublin

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell to Dublin

Adieu my friends, in Dublin Town
I bid you all adieu;
I cannot yet appoint the day
When I'll return to you.
I write these lines aboard a ship
Where stormy billows roar,
May the heavens save our Fenian boys
Till I return on shore.

Let no one blame the turnkey
Or any of his men,
There's no one knows but the two of us
THe man that stood my friend.
I robbed no man, I shed no blood,
Though they sent me to jail,
Because I was O'Donovan Rossa,
A son to Granuawale.

I joined the Fenian Brotherhood
In the year of Sixty Four,
Bound to save my native land
Or perish on the shore.
My friends and me we did agree
Our native land to save,
And plant the flag of Freedom
At the head of Emmet's grave.

My curse attend the traitors false
Who did our cause betray,
I would tie a millstone round their necks
And drown them in the sea.
There is Nagle, Noone, O'Brien
And Power to make four
Like demons for their conduct
In hell they loudly roar.

There's O'Leary and young Mackey
And the brave O'Donovan Ross,
It grieved me for to part with them
When I left Harld's Cross;
But if he lives and prospers, boys,
The truth he does declare,
Like O'Mahony in America
The green flag he must wear.

Cheer up my gallant Fenian men
The day is not far away,
When our Fenian boys the flag will raise
And trample tyranny.
Our gallant sons beyond the seas
Will join in unity;
And we will raise the flag of freedom
And fight for liberty.

From a broadside Ballad ca. 1865
tune: Boys of Wexford
RG
OCT98

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!