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Marchin' down O'Connell Street with the Starry Plough on high |
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There goes the Citizen Army with their fists raised in the sky |
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Leading them is a mighty man with a mad rage in his eye |
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"My name is James Connolly - I didn't come here to die |
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But to fight for the rights of the working man |
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And the small farmer too |
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Protect the proletariat from the bosses and their screws |
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So hold on to your rifles, boys, and don't give up your dream |
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Of a Republic for the workin' class, economic liberty" |
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Then Jem yelled out "Oh Citizens, this system is a curse |
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An English boss is a monster, an Irish one even worse |
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They'll never lock us out again and here's the reason why |
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My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to die....." |
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And now we're in the GPO with the bullets whizzin' by |
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With Pearse and Sean McDermott biddin' each other goodbye |
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Up steps our citizen leader and roars out to the sky |
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"My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to die... |
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Oh Lily, I don't want to die, we've got so much to live for |
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And I know we're all goin' out to get slaughtered, but I just can't take any more |
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Just the sight of one more child screamin' from hunger in a Dublin slum |
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Or his mother slavin' 14 hours a day for the scum |
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Who exploit her and take her youth and throw it on a factory floor |
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Oh Lily, I just can't take any more |
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They've locked us out, they've banned our unions, they even treat their animals better than us |
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No! It's far better to die like a man on your feet than to live forever like some slave on your knees, Lilly |
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But don't let them wrap any green flag around me |
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And for God's sake, don't let them bury me in some field full of harps and shamrocks |
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And whatever you do, don't let them make a martyr out of me |
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No! Rather raise the Starry Plough on high, sing a song of freedom |
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Here's to you, Lily, the rights of man and international revolution" |
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We fought them to a standstill while the flames lit up the sky |
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'Til a bullet pierced our leader and we gave up the fight |
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They shot him in Kilmainham jail but they'll never stop his cry |
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My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to die...." |
