The Irish standard., 1895-12-07
Old Erin's Flag.

Unroll Erin's flag! fling its fold to the
breeze!
Let it float DER the land. let it flash DER
the seas:
Lift it out Of the dust--let 1t wave as OF
yore,
When it's chiefs with their clans stood
round it and swore
That never.-no!-never,w while God gave
them life
And they had an arm and sword for the
strife.
That never! no!-rever, that banner should
AS long as the heart of a Celt was its
shield;
While the hand of q Celt has weapon to
WELD,
And his last drop Of blood was unshed on
the field
Lift it up! wave it high!-'tis as bright as
g.. Of old
Not stain on it's green not a blot on its
gold;
Tho the woes and the wrongs Of three
hundred hong years
Have drenclld Erin's sunburst with blood
and with tears!
Though the clouds Of oppression enshroud
1t in gloom
And round it the thunders Of tyranny
boom.
Look aloft! look aloft! 10! the clouds drift
ing by,
There's CLEAN through the gloom, there's
a light in the sky;
IT'S, the sunburSt resplendent-far, Hash
ing on high!
Erin's dark night is waning;' her day
dawn is nigh.
Lift it up! lift it up! the old Banner of
Green!
The blood of its sons has but frightened
it's sheen;
What.--tho,1gh the tyrant has trampled it
down,
Are it's folds not ernblaZoned with deeds
OF renown?
What!--though for ages it droops in the
dust,
Shall it droop thus forever mo! no! God
@ is just!
Take it up! take it up! from the tyrants
foul thread,
Let him tear the Green F'lag--we will
snatch it's last shred,
And beneath it We'll bleed as our fore
fathers bled,
And we'll vow by the dust in the graves
Of our dead,
And We'll swear by the blood which the
49,, Briton has she'd
And we'll VOW by the wrecks which
through Erin he spread,
And We'll swear 10y the thousands who,
b, fanished, unfed,
Died down in the ditches-.wild bowling
for bread;
And we'll VOW by our heroes, whose spirits
have fled;
ana we Ii swear Dy the COnGS III caCfl COT
Unless bed.
That we'll battle the Brton through dam
ger and dread;
That We'll cling to The cause that we
glory to wed,
IT'LL the gleam Of our steel and the shock
e.s Of our lead
Shall prove TO our foe that we meant
what we said
That Wen lift up the Green, and We'll
SCI tear down the Red.
Lift UP the Green Flag! oh: it wants to &c
home:
Full long has its lot been to wander and
roam;
It has followed the fate Of it's sons O. er the
world,
But it's folds, like their hopes, are not
faded nor furled:
Like a weary-winged bird to the East and
West,
1t has fitted and tied-but 1t never shall
IT'LL. pluming its pinions, it sweeps DER
the main,
And speeds to the shores Of its old nome
again.
Where its fetterless FOLDS, Ger each noun
tain and plain
Shall wave with a glory that never shall
wane.
Take it up! take 1t up! bear it backfrom
afar---
That banner must blaze mid the light
nings Of war;
8 Lay your hands on It's folds, lift your
gaze to the sky.
And swear that you'll hear it in triumph
or die,
And shout to the clans scattered far DER
the earth,
10 join In the march to the land Of their
birth;
And whenever the exiles, meath heavens
. broad dome,
Have been fated to suffer, to sorrow and
a. roam,
They'll bound on the sea, and away. o'er
the foam,
They'll sail to the music of "EIome, sweet
Homer
5.@ Father Ryan.