Digital Tradition Mirror

James Connolly

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

James Connolly
(Patrick Galvin)

Where oh where is our James Connolly ?
Where oh where is that gallant man ?
He is gone to organise the Union
That working men they may yet be free.

Oh who then who will lead the van ?
Oh who then who will lead the van ?
Who but our James Connolly
The hero of the working man.

Who will carry high the burning flag ?
Who will carry high the burning flag ?
Who but our James Connolly
Could carry high the burning flag.

They carried him up to the jail
They carried him up to the jail
And they shot him down on a bright May morning
And quickly laid him in his grave.

Who mourns the death of this great man ?
Who mourns the death of this great man ?
Oh bury me down in yon green garden
With union men on every side.

So they buried him down in yon green garden
With union men on every side
They swore they would form a mighty union
That James Connolly's name might be filled with pride.

Where oh where is our James Connolly ?
Where oh where is that gallant man ?
He is gone to organise the Union
That working men they may yet be free.

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recorded by Christy Moore on "Prosperous" (1972), who names Johnny
Moynihan (of Sweeney's Men) as his source, by Mary Black on
"The Black Family" (1980) and the Fallen Angels (1992), who both na
Christy Moore as their source.

Mary Black sings an additional verse:

        Where oh where is the Citizen Army ?
        Where oh where is that gallant band ?
        They've gone to join the great rebellion
        That working men they might yet be free.

James Connolly was co-founder (with James Larkin) of the Irish
Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), founder of the
Irish Citizen Army, Union leader in the great Dublin lock-out
of 1913, Marxist (and friend of Lenin) and one of the leaders
of the Easter Rising 1916, for which he was subsequently executed
in Kilmainham jail by the British Authorities. He is revered as a
hero in Ireland, but his position is a bit strange because the
nationalists are irritated by his socialism and the socialists
by his nationalism. Let's just say he was an Irishman. MJ

Copyright Patrick Galvin
MJ

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!