Black & Tans

I was born on 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 neighbours out with this chorus:

come out you 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 of Killashandra.

Come let us hear you tell
How you slammed the great Pernell,
When you fought them well and truly persecuted,
Where are the smears and jeers
That you loudly let us hear
When our leaders of sixteen were executed.

come out you 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 of Killashandra

Come tell us how you slew
Them oul Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bow an arrows,
How bravely you faced one
With your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.

come out you 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 of Killashandra

now the time is coming fast
And I think them days are here
When each English an will run before us,
And if there be a need
then our kids will say, "Godspeed!"
With a verse or two of singing this fine chorus.

come out you 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 of Killashandra