The green fields of France
Well how do ye do young Willie McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while beneath the warm summers sun
I've been walkin all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19 ,
when you joined the great fallin in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
For young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene
Chorus
Did they beat the drums slowly
Did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
'Did ye leave ayre a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory inshrined
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever 19
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed in forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph torn battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame
Chorus
'The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summers 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 gun firing now
But here in this graveyard is still no mans land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To mans blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned
Chorus
'Aye young Willie McBride I can't help wonder why
Do those that lye here know why did they die
And did they believe when they answered the call
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrow the sufferin 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
Chorus
