You'll Never Beat the Irish - The Wolfe Tones

In eleven sixty-seven, they came to Ireland on the make

They were followed by invasions and by conquests in their wake

The Kings and Queens of England made the land a battleground

They took the land by fraud, defeat;

by murder, poison, and deceit!

Murder, plunder fallaballa, clear the way

Cheating, stealing, diddly-idel-day

Ducking, diving, fallaballa, clear the way

Diddly-aidel-doh, diddly-aidel-day

Then by the fifteenth century they held precariously to the Pale

The invaders were more Irish than the Irish, that’s the tale

A fat greedy king (called Henry)'s dick was bigger than his brain

Imposed a reformation- confiscating usurpation!

You’ll never beat the Irish, no matter what you do

You can put us down and keep us out, but we’ll come back again

You know we are the fighting Irish and we’ll fight until the end

You know, you should have known: You’ll never beat the Irish

The virgin Queen, Elizabeth, brought more turmoil to our land

She decimated Munster, scorched the earth and all at hand

Then James the first and Charles the Mad brought out other greedy bands

They took the land of Ulster, killed their Chieftains- poisoned, plundered!

Murder, plunder fallaballa, clear the way

Cheating, stealing, diddly-idel-day

Ducking, diving, fallaballa, clear the way

Diddly-aidel-doh, diddly-aidel-day

-And by defective titles, they cheated Connaught and the west

Across the seventeenth century from war we had no rest

For the curse of Cromwell plagued the land, 'til our towns were red with blood

Then the Battle of the Boyne was fought by William, James and foreign hoards

You’ll never beat the Irish, no matter what you do

You can put us down and keep us out, but we’ll come back again

You know we are the fighting Irish and we’ll fight until the end

You know, you should have known: You’ll never beat the Irish