Black and Tans
Written by Dominic Behan


I was born in Dublin streets where the Loyalist drums did beat
And the bloody English boots trampled all over us
And every single night when me da' would came home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus

Chorus:
Come out you black and tans, come on 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

Tell her how you bravely slew them poor Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows
Tell her how faced down one with your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow

Come on and let us hear you tell how you slammed the great Parnell
When you fought them well and truly persecuted
Where all those sneers and cheers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of sixteen were executed

The day is coming fast and the time will soon be near
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us
And if there be a need sure my kids will sing God speed
With a verse of two of Steven Beehan's chorus

Public Domain