THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS.
A TRIBUTE AND A CLAIM.
By CAPTAIN D. D. SHEEHAN.
(late Royal Munster Fusiliers)
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They came from North and South
From all the Land they came:
And they went forth
Yes, forth they went,
Not from a partitioned Territory
Or dismembered State.
But from an integral isle that
Down the ages
Held staunchly to ancient standards
Of primordial right and kingly rule.
Theirs the brave, high spirit of a warrior race
That no shallow spites or poisonous hates
Or gaunting jibes
Could curb or leash,
When right and freedom were in jeopardy.
No narrow creed was theirs, no paltering thoughts of self.
They offered all that man can give,
The white sacrifice of their lives
That Liberty and Right and Freedom
May shower their mystic mercies over all the lands
And men and women walk the earth
In meekness and in righteousness.
They came from North and South,
From South and North they came,
The proud heirs of Eire’s tested valour.
Though helmeted in all the panoply of modern armour
Their breast-plates still the flowering
Chivalry of the Red Branch
And their pinions those that winged the Wild Geese
On their glorious ways of honour and renown.
So forth they went
To fight the world’s fight
‘Gainst the dread Dragon Beast of tyranny and terror:
That its monstrous shape should ne’er again
Affright the innocent, the weak and unoffending of the human race.
They came from Bantry and from Donegal,
From all the scattered plains and lowly hamlets in between,
From beauteous Wicklow Vales and lovely Antrim Glens,
Some trudged with broken boots and blistered feet,
Obedient to the fiercely-burning inward urge,
To fulfil themselves unto themselves
And yielding all gain all
That it is given men to win
In fulfilment of the Divine Law of Greater Love.
