Come out ye Black and Tans
I was born in a Dublin Street where the Loyal drums do beat
And those loving English feet they walked all over us
And every single night when me Da would come home tight
He'd invite the neighbors out with this chorus:
Chorus:
Come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes in Kileashandra.
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered the great Parnell
When you thought him well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of 1916 were executed
-Chorus-
Come tell us how you slew them auld Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bow and arrows
How bravely you faced one with your 16 pounder gun
And you frightened them damn natives to their marrow
-Chorus-
Now the time is coming fast and I think them days are here
When each English shawneen he'll run before us
And if there'll be a need then our kids will say God speed
With a verse or two of singing this fine chorus.
-Chorus-
(by Dominic Behan)