C
My name is John Riley
F C
I'll have your ear only a while
F C
I left my dear home in Ireland
Am
It was death, starvation or exile
F C
And when I got to America
F Am
It was my duty to go
C F
Enter the Army and slog across Texas
G Am
To join in the war against Mexico
C
It was there in the pueblos and hillsides
F C
That I saw the mistake I had made
F C
Part of a conquering army
Am
With the morals of a bayonet blade
F C
So in the midst of these poor, dying Catholics
F Am
Screaming children, the burning stench of it all
C F
Myself and two hundred Irishmen
G Am
Decided to rise to the call
[Chorus]
F C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G Am
We witnessed freedom denied
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
[Verse]
C
We marched 'neath the green flag of Saint Patrick
F C
Emblazoned with "Erin Go Bragh"
F C
Bright with the harp and the shamrock
Am
And "Libertad pa Mexicana"
F C
Just fifty years after Wolftone
F Am
Five thousand miles away
C F
The Yanks called us a Legion of Strangers
G Am
And they can talk as they may
[Chorus]
F C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G Am
We witnessed freedom denied
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
[Verse]
C
We fought them in Matamoros
F C
While their volunteers were raping the nuns
F C
In Monterey and Cerro Gordo
Am
We fought on as Ireland's sons
F C
We were the red-headed fighters for freedom
F Am
Amidst these brown-skinned women and men
C F
Side by side we fought against tyranny
G Am
And I daresay we'd do it again
[Chorus]
F C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G Am
We witnessed freedom denied
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
[Verse]
C
We fought them in five major battles
F C
Churobusco was the last
F C
Overwhelmed by the cannons from Boston
Am
We fell after each mortar blast
F C
Most of us died on that hillside
F Am
In the service of the Mexican state
C F
So far from our occupied homeland
G Am
We were heroes and victims of fate
[Chorus]
F C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G Am
We witnessed freedom denied
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
F C
So we formed the Saint Patrick Battalion
G Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
