The Youngest Of Them All

Unknown 

 

Their city has seen so much sorrow and tears,

They talk of the rebels who have died,

Of the brave volunteers who gave their lives through the years,

From Creggan and from the Bogside.

 

Sixteen years old from a Shantallow home,

Michael Meenan was the youngest of them all,

Though barely a man yet old enough to understand,

He answered his country's call.

 

[chorus]

The fight still goes on never seeming to end,

And God knows it shouldn't be so,

If all Irishmen were as brave as young men,

The chains would've been broken long ago.

 

It happened one night in 1974,

As the feast of Halloween was drawing nigh,

To strike at the foe with courage he'd go,

Their targets to bomb and destroy.

The explosion was heard in the streets round his home,

Muffled South Derry in the air,

A community cried from their hearts deep inside,

When the news of his death they did hear.

 

So tragically ended a young heroes life,

Before it had even begun,

For Ireland he paid the supreme sacrifice,

The price of a patriot's end.

And in the estate of Shantallow today,

His name is remembered with pride,

Michael Meenan you have gone but your spirit it lives on,

You've rekindled that ever burning light.