Rejoice ye men of Leitrim,
No longer mourn the fate
That held you in serfdom
On a villain's broad estate.
The iron hand that bound you
In slavery's hated chain
Shall never seize your earnings
Nor menace you again.
No more that tyrant Landlord
Shall rack rent and oppress;
No more increase your misery
Nor add to your distress.
The curses of his victims
Have fallen on his head,
And the avenger's hand has sent him
To number with the dead.
Lord Leitrim was a noble man,
He owned a vast estate
And he ruled like a despot
And earned the people's hate
One hundred thousand acres
Were subject to his sway;
And he kept his suffering tenants
In terror and dismay.
The widow's prayers he laughed at;
The orphans' tears despised.
He rooted up their homesteads
And in poverty they died.
He trampled on their sacred rights
That earned their sweated toil,
And he banished them in hundreds
From Tirconaill's holy soil.
In Galway, as in Leitrim,
His tyranny was felt,
From both these western counties
He exterminates himself.
The Donegal evictions
In history mark a place,
But it was here in Donegal they ended
That hoary sinner's race.
It was on the road to Milford
The armed avengers stood,
And they wiped out the injuries of years
In that vile evictor's blood.
Who dares to say that's wrong,
For they rid the land of Leitrim
Who burdened it too long.
Rejoice ye men of Leitrim,
Galway and Donegal,
For that tyrant's blood was shed
In vengeance for you all.
You suffered from his tyranny,
You feared his dread command,
You had to pay increased rents and do his will
Or be banished from his lands.
So no more that dreadful mandate
Will issue forth from him
He has paid the price of tyranny
As he lived, he died, in sin.
And the widow's ruined cottage,
Near Cranford marks the spot,
Where Leitrim fell a bleeding corpse
Before a Fanad shot.
Here's to the men who did that deed,
May their names be never known,
Only to that band of brothers
Who claim them as their own.
In Donegal and Leitrim,
Let Irishmen proclaim,
And will you now please pray for those
Who ended that tyrant's reign.
No longer mourn the fate
That held you in serfdom
On a villain's broad estate.
The iron hand that bound you
In slavery's hated chain
Shall never seize your earnings
Nor menace you again.
No more that tyrant Landlord
Shall rack rent and oppress;
No more increase your misery
Nor add to your distress.
The curses of his victims
Have fallen on his head,
And the avenger's hand has sent him
To number with the dead.
Lord Leitrim was a noble man,
He owned a vast estate
And he ruled like a despot
And earned the people's hate
One hundred thousand acres
Were subject to his sway;
And he kept his suffering tenants
In terror and dismay.
The widow's prayers he laughed at;
The orphans' tears despised.
He rooted up their homesteads
And in poverty they died.
He trampled on their sacred rights
That earned their sweated toil,
And he banished them in hundreds
From Tirconaill's holy soil.
In Galway, as in Leitrim,
His tyranny was felt,
From both these western counties
He exterminates himself.
The Donegal evictions
In history mark a place,
But it was here in Donegal they ended
That hoary sinner's race.
It was on the road to Milford
The armed avengers stood,
And they wiped out the injuries of years
In that vile evictor's blood.
Who dares to say that's wrong,
For they rid the land of Leitrim
Who burdened it too long.
Rejoice ye men of Leitrim,
Galway and Donegal,
For that tyrant's blood was shed
In vengeance for you all.
You suffered from his tyranny,
You feared his dread command,
You had to pay increased rents and do his will
Or be banished from his lands.
So no more that dreadful mandate
Will issue forth from him
He has paid the price of tyranny
As he lived, he died, in sin.
And the widow's ruined cottage,
Near Cranford marks the spot,
Where Leitrim fell a bleeding corpse
Before a Fanad shot.
Here's to the men who did that deed,
May their names be never known,
Only to that band of brothers
Who claim them as their own.
In Donegal and Leitrim,
Let Irishmen proclaim,
And will you now please pray for those
Who ended that tyrant's reign.
inviata da Alessandro - 24/2/2010 - 18:17
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Altra canzone, insieme a The Banks Of Mulroy Bay, dedicata alla vendetta dei contadini irlandesi contro William Sydney Clements, signore di Leitrim, simbolo dei landlords che per decenni li avevano angariati, ridotti alla fame, uccisi, costretti ad emigrare.
Anche questa ballata è stata pubblicata nel 1962 in “The Fanad Patriots”, a cura di Patrick Doherty.