G C G D7 G


[Verse 1]
     G             C G
Come all you young rebels
    D              G
And list' while we sing
        D             G
For the love of one's country
     C        G
Is a terrible thing.
   D        G
It banishes fear with
    C          G
the speed of a flame
                    C    G
And it makes us all part of
    D       G
the patriot game.


[Verse 2]
G            C  G
My name is O'Hanlon,
        D            G
And I'm just gone sixteen,
   D          G
My home is in Monaghan,
C           G
Where I was weaned,
     D              G
I've learned all my life
      C            G
Cruel England's to blame,
             C    G
And so I'm a part of
    D       G
the patriot game.
 

[Verse 3]
                C    G
This Ireland of ours has
    D              G
for long been half free,
    D            G
Six counties are under
     C           G
John Bull's tyranny,
      D              G
So we gave up our boyhoods
   C            G
to drill and to train,
                 C    G
And play our own part in
    D       G
the patriot game.
 
 
[Verse 4]
(This version lyrics spoken, not sung)

                C     G
It's barely two years since
     D         G
they wandered away,
       D                     G
and it was with the local battalion
       C        G
of the bold I.R.A.
           D             G
For they'd read of our heroes
         C          G
and they wanted the same,
                  C    G
To play their own part in
    D       G
the patriot game.
 

[Verse 5]
             C   G
And now as I lie here,
   D        G
My body all holes,
  D              G
I think of those traitors,
    C            G
Who bargained in souls,
  D            G
I wish that my rifle
    C         G
had given the same,
                       C    G
To those quislings who sold out
    D       G
the patriot game.