Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Weapons and the Men

The Weapons and the Men

The Weapons and the Men
(James Stimson)

Though the beauties of the summer
Decked green Erin's fertile breast,
There was woe and bitter wailing
In the valleys of the West.
For the presence of the tyrant
Cursed the mountain and the glen;
And the laggard Frenchman came not
With the weapons for our men.
But when autumn browned the cornfields
And the leaves upon the trees,
You could hear the rising murmur
Swell to thunder in the breeze.
Eyes that long were dimmed in slavery
Flashed with Freedom's light again
For the French were in Killala
With the weapons for our men!
It has come, the day of vengeance
That our souls have waited long;
Vengeance on the hated tyrant
For each dark and bitter wrong.
As the mountain fox is hunted
Back into his loathsome den,
So we'll scourge the brutal tyrant
With our weapons and our men.

MR
APR99