Children's laughter children tears
Childish joys of childhood years
Are just memories of our once happy home
Its not death that brings the pain
I would face it all again
But it grieves me so to leave you all along.

Do the wee ones still sigh when they hear their daddy's name
Do they sadly ask you why I won't be home again
How hard it is to know I'll never see them grow
Let my dying bring for them a better land.

May they never know the fears
That blighted my young years
Of the shackles that have bound my native land
May they see the joy of life
And not cruel civil strife
Foreign laws imposed by brutal strangers hands.

Let them grow in love and truth
Let them blossom into youth
Guided by their mother's loving hand
Let them cherish Ireland's pride
For this Joe McDonnell died
Let them know their father loved them and his land.