Traditional

Down by Sheelin's vale at sunset
Fierce as demons in their wrath,
Spread a band of English troopers
Fire and carnage marked their path.

Midnight shines, and blazing rooftree
Lit the darkness of the night,
From the shores of fair Lough Gowna
To the slopes of Granard's height.

Maid and mother fell before them
All m wrath and vengeance smote
And in pride the foeman's legion
Onward sped to Granard's Moat.

We marched that morn from Creenagh
To oppose them on their way
And by river, lake, or mountain
Made we neither stop or stay.

Till a band of English troopers
Crossed our path at Edgeworthstown
And we piked the last red foeman
As the evening sun went down.

Early in the dewy morning
As the day began to dawn
Towards the ancient moat of Granard
We were proudly marching on.

High overhead us wave our banner
In its beauty fair and free
Borne by men from Carrickmoira
And the plains of Killashee,

From the banks of Cloonart river
And from Cleaney's village green
Hast'ning onwards to the onset
Many a gallant youth was seen.

As we reached the heights of Granard
Right before us, formed in line
We could see the English legion
And their spears and banner shine.

For a moment's space we halted
As we came within their view
Then a deadly thirst for vengeance
Filled our bosoms through and through,

With a shout that loudly echoed
To the far-off Shannon shore
Through the red ranks of the foeman
In a furious rush we tore.

With that rush our gallant pikemen
Leaped against their foremost line
And their blades drank deep in vengeance
For many a bloody crime.

Fast and deadly ev'ry weapon
Found a Saxon foeman's breast,
As our fierce and maddened pikemen
Through their columns thickly pressed.

Granard's ancient moat was reddened
By the blood of friend and foe
Well we met them with their bayonets
With our pike their sabre-blow.

Backwards pressed against the valley
Bravely fighting to the last,
But again our gallant pikeman
Gathered round them fierce and fast.

Morning, saw their haughty standard
In its pride and glory wave;
Evening saw the foeman's legion
Crushed and sunk in one red grave,

And where stood the ranks of Britain
By the light of morning's dawn
Over their graves in proud defiance
Erin's rebel banner shone.

Longford long shall tell the story,
How her children bravely stood
In that fight for Erin's glory
Brave and stern as freemen should.

And their deeds shall nerve their brothers
When they grasp the freeman's brand,
To go forth, to fall or conquer
For the rights of motherland.