Irish Songs and Lyrics

The Green Fields of France (Willie McBride)

This poignant song - written by John Bogle - commemorates a young Irish soldier killed on the battlefields of France during Word War 1. The most popular rendition of the song is performed by The Fureys. Many a drunken Irish man has been heard singing this classic - usually not in tune.

Well [G] how do you [Em] do, young [C] Willie [Am] McBride,
Do you [D7] mind if I [D] sit here down [C] by your grave[G] side.
And rest for a [Em] while ‘neath the [C] warm summer [Am] sun.
I’ve been [D7] working all [D] day and [C] I’m nearly [G] done.
I see by your gravestone you were [D] only nineteen
When you joined the great [Am] Fallon in [G] nineteen-[D]sixteen.
I [G] hope you died well and I [D] hope you died clean.
Or Willie McBride, was it [C] slow and [G] obscene.

[chorus]

Did they [D] beat the drum slowly, did they [C] play the fife [G] lowly,
did they [D] sound the dead-march as they [C] lowered you [D] down.
And did the [C] band play the Last post and [G] chorus [Em]
Did the [C] pipes play the [Am] ‘Flowers of the [D] fo[G]rest’.

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze. it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’s no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it’s still no-man’s-land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.

Now young Willie McBride I can’t help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrows, the suffering, the glory. the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Tags: green fields of france, willie mcbride, irish folk songs, irish songs, world war 1 songs, the fureys, eric bogle

Popularity: 89% [?]

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THE TOWN I LOVED SO WELL

This popular classic was written and performed by Phil Coulter and also the Dubliners. This Irish song relates to Phil Coulter’s life growing up in the poor streets of Derry in the North of Ireland.

The later verses of the songs deal with the onset of the Irish Troubles. Derry bore a large part of the conflict, especially in the early days when British soldiers shot dead 14 unarmed civilians which became known as Bloody Sunday.

In my [G] memo[Am] ry I will [C] always [G] see

The [C] town that [G] I have loved so [D] well

Where our [G] school played [D] ball by the [C] Gas-yard [G] wall

And we [C] laughed through the [G] smoke [D] and the [G] smell

Going [Em] home in the [D] rain, running [C] up the dark [G] lane

Past the [C] jail and [Am7] down behind the [D] fountain

Those were [G] happy [D] days, in so [C] many, many [G] ways

In the [C] town I [G] loved [D] so [G] well
In the early morning the Shirt Factory horn
Called women from Creggan, The Moor and The Bog
While the men on the dole played a mother’s role
Fed the children, and then walked the roads

And when times got rough there was just about enough
But they saw it through without complaining
For deep inside was a burning pride
For the town I love so well

There was music there in the Derry air
Like a language that we could all understand
I remember the day, when I earned my first pay
As I played in the small pick-up band

Then I spent my youth, and to tell you the truth
I was sad to leave it all behind me
For I’d learned about life and I’d found me a wife
In the town I loved so well

But when I returned, how my eyes were burned
To see how a town could be brought to its knees
By the armoured cars and the bombed out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze

Now the Army’s installed by the old Gas-yard wall
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and guns, oh my God what have they done
To the town I love so well

Now the music’s gone, but they still carry-on
Though their spirit’s gone, but never broken
They will not forget for their hearts are all set
On tomorrow, and peace once again

For what’s done is done, and what’s won is won
And what’s lost is lost and gone forever
I can only pray for a bright brand new day
In the town I love so well

Tags: irish song, irish song lyric, irish folk song, irish pub song, derry, phil coulter

Popularity: 100% [?]

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