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> Irish Citizen Army, Song\Speech?

Jeremy
post Mar 27 2004, 09:26 PM
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I just got this song from Irelands_Son.
It's called Irish Citizen Army, by The Pilgrims.
It's pretty sweet, it starts off with "a reading of the last statement of James Connolly", and then the song itself.
Would I be able to get the lyrics for both?
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Werewolf
post Mar 29 2004, 02:53 AM
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Never heard the song but will definitely look it up. The last statement of James Connolly, however, follows:

QUOTE
To the Field General Court Martial, held at Dublin Castle, on May 9th, 1916:

I do not wish to make any defence except against charges of wanton cruelty to prisoners. These trifling allegations that have been made, if they record facts that really happened deal only with the almost unavoidable incidents of a hurried uprising against long established authority, and nowhere show evidence of set purpose to wantonly injure unarmed persons.

We went out to break the connection between this country and the British Empire, and to establish an Irish Republic. We believed that the call we then issued to the people of Ireland, was a nobler call, in a holier cause, than any call issued to them during this war, having any connection with the war. We succeeded in proving that Irishmen are ready to die endeavouring to win for Ireland those national rights which the British Government has been asking them to die to win for Belgium. As long as that remains the case, the cause of Irish freedom is safe.

Believing that the British Government has no right in Ireland, never had any right in Ireland, and never can have any right in Ireland, the presence, in any one generation of Irishmen, of even a respectable minority, ready to die to affirm that truth, makes that Government for ever a usurpation and a crime against human progress.

I personally thank God that I have lived to see the day when thousands of Irish men and boys, and hundreds of Irish women and girls, were ready to affirm that truth, and to attest it with their lives if need be.


JAMES CONNOLLY,
Commandant-General, Dublin Division,
Army of the Irish Republic
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southsider
post Apr 8 2004, 06:58 AM
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The song you are looking for is called James Connelly - Irish Citizens Army, and it is on the Blarney Pilgrims CD "Marchin Down Sackville Street". The first line on the CD version is changed to Marchin down Sackville Sreet

James Connolly

Larry Kirwan

Marchin' down O'Connell Street with the Starry Plough on high
There goes the Citizen Army with their fists raised in the sky
Leading them is a mighty man with a mad rage in his eye
"My name is James Connolly - I didn't come here to die
But to fight for the rights of the working man and the small farmer too
To protect the proletariat from the bosses and their screws
So hold on to your rifles, boys, don't give up your dream
Of a Republic for the working class, economic liberty."

Then Jem yelled out "Oh Citizens, this system is a curse
An English boss is a monster, An Irish one even worse
They'll never lock us out again and here is the reason why:
My name is James Connolly - I didn't come here to die ..."

And now we're in the GPO with the bullets whizzin' by
With Pearse and Sean McDermott biddin' each other goodbye
Up steps our citizen leader and he roars out to the sky
"My name is James Connolly - I didn't come here to die ...

Oh Lillie, I don't want to die, we've got so much to live for
And I know we're all goin' out to get slaughtered, but I just can't take any more
Just the sight of one more child screamin' from hunger in a Dublin slum
Or his mother slavin' 14 hour days for the scum
Who exploit her and take her youth and throw it on a factory floor
Oh Lillie, I just can't take any more

They've locked us out, banned our unions, they even treat their animals better than us
No! It's far better to die like a man than to live forever like some slave on your knees, Lillie

But don't let them wrap any green flag around me
And, for god's sake, don't let them bury me in some field full of harps and shamrocks
And whatever you do, don't let them make a martyr out of me
No! Rather rise the Starry Plough on high and sing a song of freedom
Here's to you, Lillie, the rights of man and international revolution."

We fought them to a standstill while the flames lit up the sky
'Til a bullet pierced our leader and we gave up the fight
They shot him in Kilmainham Jail but they'll never stop his cry
"My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to die."
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Werewolf
post Apr 13 2004, 02:46 AM
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For those who might not know it: the road in front of the General Post Office in Dublin was named Sackville Street at the time of the Easter Rising in 1916, and is now named O'Connell Street after Daniel O'Connell.
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