I was born on a Dublin street where the royal drums do beat
And the loving English feet they tramped all over us
And each and every night when my father'd come home tight
He'd invite the neighbours outside with this chorus: O come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.
Come tell us how you slew them poor arabs two by two
Like the Zulu they had spears and bows and arrows
How you bravely faced each one with your 16 pounder gun
Till you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.
O come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.
Come let us hear you tell how you saved the great Parnell
When you thought him well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of '16 were executed.
O come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.
Well the time is coming fast and will surely come at last
When each yeoman will be cut aside before us
And if there'd be a need, sure my kids would sing Godspeed
To a verse or two of "Stephen Behan's Chorus".
O come out ye Black and Tans, come out and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.
"Black and tans" was the nickname of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), England's police force in Ireland. The English recruits to the RIC in the early 1920's were mainly the unemployed veterans of World War I. Since there were not enough RIC uniforms for the new men, they were equipped with khaki service dress supplemented with constabulary uniforms, so that they appeared in a strange mixture of khaki and dark green, some with khaki tunic and green trousers, others in all khaki, some with civilian hats, but most with green caps and black leather belts of the RIC. These uniforms led to their being called "Black and Tans," after a famous pack of hounds.
Killeshandra is a town in County Cavan.
"Heroes of '16" refers to the Easter rising in 1916. The British gave young Irish men who were suspected of any kind of criminal activity a simple choice: prison or conscription. This left Ireland with few soldiers with whom to fight the British.
This song is written by Dominic Behan, brother of the famous Irish playwright Brendan Behan and author Brian Behan. It is reputedly an account of their father taunting loyalist neighbors after a night of drinking during the Irish war of independence (1919-21).
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